Of Blindness and Friendship
by kaizoku21
Summary: AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and a pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Fem!LuffyxAce
1. Primo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and a pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **PrimO**

As much as Ace loves being a pirate, it was kind of painstakingly boring and suffocating if you happened to be stuck on a pirate ship for almost a month, so when they docked Moby Dick at the port of an unknown island they've located in East Blue, Ace almost kiss the land as soon as his feet touch the ground.

"Where are we, Marco?" Ace asked, his eyes roaming around the quiet village.

"Somewhere in Goa Kingdom in East Blue," was the answer of Marco, the blonde First Mate and Commander of the first Division of Whitebeard Pirate.

What surprised the young man is that even though there are couple of villagers in the port, their reaction was kind of... peculiar.

Instead of the usual scared and intimidated expression the pirate crew was so used to, they were instead greeted by (granted because, duh, they are the Whitebeard Pirates) a surprised reaction from the villagers when Moby Dick unceremoniously entered the village's port side.

The townsfolk froze to gaze in awe when the almighty Commanders of the infamous pirate crew flaunt themselves soon as the plank connected to the port. But the aftershock reactions of seeing the Whitebeard crew passed a little bit quicker than what they usually have expected, before the villagers begun to resume their usual activity, completely ignoring the pirates to themselves.

A petite old man with cleft chin, wearing an oval-shaped eyeglasses casually approached Marco and the others. "Greetings, gentlemen. I must say, I'm rather surprised to see the famous Whitebeard Pirates here at the weakest sea in Grand Line." The old man greeted, his tone and expression were showing no malice nor mockery that the said pirate crew were so accustomed with, particularly from civilians in which their automatic reaction was to shun pirates.

As the First Mate and right hand man of Edward 'Whitebeard' Newgate, Marco advanced forward with emitting enough politeness to emphasised that they are not here to hurt the villagers. "We are only here to replenish our rations, we mean no harm, Sir."

"The name's Woodslap, Mayor of Fuschia Town," the old man introduced and waved his hand in an off-handed manner. "And we might be a small village to you, but we like to keep ourselves updated to the outside world, Mr. Marco, the Phoenix." Marco lifted an eyebrow, mildly surprised that the Mayor knew who he was, especially his famed epithet. "We already knew that Whitebeard Pirates do not attack civilians unless they're provoked. So, no worries, we do not feel threatened by your presence here. It might be also because you are not the first infamous pirate crew to land to our humble village."

The pirate crews sighed in relief.

"We are not the first, Sir?" Thatch asked, intrigued by the Woodslap's words.

"Ah. Three year ago, Akagami Shanks made our village as their temporary base in East Blue for a year, before finally leaving to Grand Line."

Ace gasped in excitement. "Seriously? Shanks?" The young commander, before joining the Whitebeard, has heard so many amazing adventures about the Akagami Pirates.

Last year, he saved his brother, Sabo, from those bastards Celestial Dragons. Ace has been looking forward of meeting and personally offer his gratitude to the said Captain. Too bad he missed his chance, though.

Woodslap nodded. "Yes. Anyways, we are but small village. We cannot offer you anything fancy, but please feel free to roam around as much as you'd like. Although, I must warn you not to harm anyone from our town. I do not want to intimidate you, but this place is under the protection of Vice Admiral Garp himself." The small mayor pointed at the large signage before leaving the pirate crew to themselves.

The Whitebeard crew craned their necks to the sign where the large words of 'FUSCHIA VILLAGE; HOME OF THE VICE-ADMIRAL MONKEY D. GARP. IN ACCORDANCE TO THE LAW THIS VILLAGE IS HEREBY UNDER PROTECTION OF THE MARINES' were written.

"That explains the casual attitude of the Mayor. But still, even with the back-up of old man Garp, the Mayor was pretty chill about a famous pirate crew stopping by his village. That old man got guts, I'll give him that." Thatch commented, slightly bemused by the unusual Mayor, after reading the warning sign. "Oh well, it's not like we're here to trash the village, so there's nothing to worry about Garp suddenly showing himself with armful of marine officers in his beck and call. Okay, division four! Make sure you buy all the ingredients I instructed for you to get!"

The commanders then followed Thatch's action and started to call out their orders to each members of their respected divisions. Ace and his second division were commanded to help the fourth division with gathering rations for their crew.

 **OnePieCe**

The whole Commanders and numbers of the pirate crew found themselves enjoying the local sake of Fuschia Town in a bar called 'Party's Bar'. The sole bartender and owner of the said establishment was a kind and gentle young lady that goes by the name Makino. Like the other townsfolk's reaction, Makino was mildly surprised by her unusual guests, but then flashed an inviting smile almost immediately and gestured her costumers to settled themselves in while she prepared their orders.

Thatch, being a gentleman he always claimed he was, helped Makino in preparing the meals and drinks seeing that the manpower of the bar is too low to serve too many costumers at once. Makino was grateful with his help, though.

The crew reminded her of the laidback crew of Shanks. She listened to the Commanders, especially to Thatch, rather attentively, putting in few words into their conversation once in awhile. The whole crew, now obviously drunk, is now merrily singing, laughing boisterously and just having the time of their lives.

Makino is starting to think that living like this is one of the traits of being a pirate. The Whitebeard crew's antics reminded herself too much of Shanks and his crew mates. Or maybe, she just missed the Akagami pirates.

The door of Party's Bar opened revealing a rather tall and over-weight woman(?) with a curly orange hair. Makino's smile turned soft as the familiar lady stride straight to her after quickly scrutinising the pirate crew.

"Hello, Dadan-san." Greeted Makino, rather warmly.

The new lady Makino called as 'Dadan' only nodded before occupying the stool three seats away from the Commanders. "The usual, please." She mumbled, and by the tone of voice her, this Dadan lady seemed to be upset by something.

"Oh my, isn't too early to drink sake?" Makino teased the other lady softly, but still moved to grab a glass, bucket of ice and a bottle of wine. "What's wrong?" She asked curiously when Dadan refused to refute back.

Dadan remained quiet as a heavy sigh escaped her lips. She's mildly aware that the pirates are now watching her, but she doesn't give a damn about a bunch of pirates right now. Now... now she's full of worries about her ward. "She refused to go under treatment."

Catching on, Makino's face saddened, "But didn't she agree with it last time?"

"She changed her mind. Again." Dadan grunted before drinking the sake in one swallow. Makino gave the older woman a sympathetic look. "I swear, I do not know what to do with that kid anymore."

"Did she mention the reason why she's backing out again?"

Dadan glared at her cup grimly. "She said that since the doctor said that the operation has only 40% chance of succeeding, why would she want to risk herself? That idiot, girl."

There was a short pause between the two ladies. Their pained expression mirrored each other. Makino sighed before filling the cup with sake again. "Are you going to stay with her tonight?"

Dadan shook her head. "Nah. My men needed someone to smash their heads first before they start doing things, ya' know. Lazy ass idiots. Wonder when they'll grow some brains to do the chores on their own?"

Makino giggled. "Well, if you're not staying, I'm fine looking after her until you return."

Dadan nodded her head. "Thanks, and I think she also needs some 'girl' talk. Whatever that means." She swallowed the sake once again before pushing herself from the chair. She left enough belli for her the sake she drunk. "Thanks, again, Makino. I'm going now to make sure I still have a house to come home tonight."

"Bye, see you later."

Dadan looked straight at Marco and the other Commanders next to her. "Y'all pirates?"

Thatch decided to answer her with calm manner. "Yes, Ma'am."

Dadan stared for few seconds before shrugging her shoulders. "Meh, don't care so long as ya don't mess up with the people of this town. G'night, Makino." She said before turning around and exited the bar.

Haruta blinked his eyes in confusion. "What was that?"

Marco lazily shrugged his shoulders. "Hell if I know." He said before returning his attention to his drink. "Where is Ace, by the way?"

"He wants to look around the town. You know that kid, he doesn't like booze." Thatch answered, amused while shaking his head fondly. He's the one and only pirate who doesn't enjoy alcohol. Truly, their youngest commander is one of a kind.

"A hundred belli says he's lost, right now." Haruta interjected, grinning widely.

Thatch's eyes glimmered. "Make that 500."

Izo chuckled. "You two are the worst." He only received an amused guffaw.

Marco and Jozou shook their heads at their crew's troublemakers.

 **OnePieCe**

"Okay, so maybe I'm a little bit lost?" Ace mumbled to himself, after half an hour of his countless attempts to leave the woods he misfortunately thought to enter.

The second division commander grumbled, he was so sure that he's following a straight path awhile ago, but after concluding that the woods seemed to be relatively harmless and kind of boring, he tried to turn back.

To his dismay, and he's blaming his horrible sense of direction, he got lost while trying to find his way back to the village. Why did he think that it was a good idea to roam around an unfamiliar forest, again? Maybe his ship brothers were right, sometimes he doesn't use his brain at all. Just look what it got him now.

Ace turned again hoping to see any EXIT signs, he would even follow the 'TO ANY IDIOTS WHO ATTEMPT TO STROLL INSIDE THIS MAZE-LIKE FOREST. THIS IS THE WAY BACK TO VILLAGE, MORON' sign, and he promised that he would never get mad or feel insulted about it. The young pirate sighed, before he surveyed his surroundings once again.

Ace noticed that it was starting to get dark, not that he's afraid of the darkness, but he's currently not in the mood to fight any kind of nocturnal wild animals right now. He's tired, he's hungry, and all he wanted to do is to leave this god-forsaken forest.

Ace blinked when his gray eyes spotted a grass path ahead of him. Hoping that it would lead him to any establishment or house, Ace followed the said dirt road. He was surprised when he was greeted by a two-floors medium sized house at the end of the path. It looks like it wasn't an abandon house, seeing that the lights inside the house were open. The two street lamps were lit as well which allowed anyone to travel the short path going to the house in ease.

His frown deepened when few feet from him, he spotted a figure walking towards the house.

It was a girl.

Her back was facing him, and Ace watched as the mysterious girl, who was seemingly lost or maybe injured the way she was so unsure with her steps, stumbled her way towards the house in slow manner. That is until her foot got caught with a stick blocking her way. Ace watched as the girl flapped her arms in panic before she fell forward and used her knees to cushion her fall.

Inwardly scolding himself for not helping the girl earlier, Ace was quick to be on the girl's aide.

Ace grabbed her by her arm. "Are you ok... ay..." his words trailed through his tongue when realisation dawned on him after his gray eyes grazed at the girl's black orbs.

Unsurprising, the girl flinched back.

"Who's there?" She squeaked.

The girl snatched her arm. Her obsidian wide and scared eyes roamed in front of her... even though Ace already suspected that these pretty eyes couldn't see him.

 **To be continued**

 _Yaaaaay! Another Fem!Luffy story! Hehe_

 _To be honest, at first I was planning of posting this as one shot, but the story just keep going on and on, that in the end I decided make couple of chapters for this as well._

 _Okay so, a quick explanation, Ace is a pirate here. Luffy is not. Ace is 20, while Luffy is 18. Ace and Sabo still know each other. Luffy does not. Before loosing her sight, Luffy met Shanks three years ago, but I'm going to leave it like that for now._

 _As usual this is going to be a short and slow story._

 _Please review! Thank you!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	2. Secondo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Secondo**

Ace automatically moved away from the girl, seeing the fresh tears which are starting to form in her eyes. "I-I didn't mean to scare you. I'm lost and I'm looking for a way to return to the village. And then I saw the path to your house. And I saw you fall and thought that maybe you needed my help and—," his ramblings were cut off by another voice.

"Luffy-chan?"

Ace and the girl snapped their head to the voice. A lady with greenish coloured hair wearing a bandana stood near them, her brown eyes were wide in alert seeing a mysterious young man next to Luffy. The newly arrived lady quickly approached the blind girl and put herself between her and Ace. "Who are you?" The older lady still tried to sound polite.

The young commander lifted his arms, trying to send a message that he's not here to do anything to the girl she called 'Luffy'. "Uhm, I'm just lost and I saw her fell down. I'm only trying to offer help. Honest."

After agonising seconds of staring straight to his grey orbs, the older lady pursed her lips, obviously still not trusting Ace, but left the conversation for the meantime to help the teen girl on her feet. "You know you're not allowed to leave the house without assistance." She lightly scolded the young girl.

The girl, in return, bowed her head in guilt. "I'm sorry," she muttered quietly.

The older lady only sighed and face Ace once again. This time her smile is genuine and apologetic. "Hi, I'm Makino." She offered one hand to Ace, which the young pirate accepted and shakes lightly.

"Name's Ace."

"Are you one of the Whitebeard pirates?"

"Uh, yeah, I am."

"I thought so. I've had a glimpsed of your tattoo on your back. I recognised it from Marco-san's tattoo." Her tone and expression were both bemused.

"You met Marco?" Was the young pirate's reaction.

"Yes, I met few of your fellow pirates. They were my costumers at the bar awhile ago. And I seemed to remember them betting on you getting lost somewhere. Looks like they're right." Makino let our a soft giggle.

Ace animatedly glared. "Those bastard betting on me behind my back!" He shouted angrily, forgetting about his companion while trying to imagine the things he would do to his ship brothers.

"I'm sorry for being rude earlier, by the way. I know you only wanted to help Luffy." Makino bowed slightly.

Ace shook his head. "I'm cool with it, really. By the way, could you please show me the way back to the village?"

Makino nodded. "Oh yes, of course. As soon as I bring Luffy back inside I'll guide you to Fuschia. So please, wait for me here."

"Sure thing."

Makino faced Luffy, who kept quiet the whole time, once again. "Come on, Luffy-chan. It's too cold for you to be out here."

"Uhm, Ace...?" Luffy called out softly, her unseeing eyes focused on floor. "Thank you for helping me earlier." And then she smiled shyly.

Ace couldn't understand why he felt a sudden surge of warmth the moment Luffy's lips curled into a timid smile. "No problem." He answered.

He watched as Makino lead Luffy inside the house. Heightening his observation haki, Ace tried to detect anyone beside Luffy and Makino. There's no one besides the two. Ace frowned. Inwardly fearing that Luffy is living in this house outside the town, alone.

 **OnePieCe**

The silence between Makino and Ace was uncomfortable to the young pirate. He knew that Makino was tense, not because she was alone with a pirate, but Ace guessed because he accidentally stumbled upon the existence of Luffy, of which Makino, or Luffy's grandfather, was trying to hide.

Maybe it's because the girl was blind and practically defenceless, or something a lot deeper than that, Ace was not sure. He scolded himself for being far too curious, especially since he only just met the blind girl, and except for the name and her 'condition', he doesn't know anything about her.

But for some reasons, Ace just couldn't forget about Luffy's pretty yet unseeing eyes. Those round, black orbs, that behind Luffy's shyness, were glimmering ever so slightly in curiosity to the world that she cannot see. The second division commander wondered how were those wide eyes looked before it lost its ability to see. He wanted to see different emotions on those eyes of hers.

"So, Luffy?" Ace carefully thread to the topic Makino was obviously trying to avoid.

Makino sighed in defeat and nodded. "She's the granddaughter of an acquaintance of mine." She answered, almost whispered in hesitant.

"Ah, okay." Ace was hoping for Makino to spill more about Luffy's situation, but even though he was expecting for Makino to do the opposite, Ace still couldn't help but to be disappointed by Makino's next words.

Making stopped walking and face the young man. "It is... not a story for me to tell, Ace. I'm sorry."

"Sure, it's not like I'm going to force you or anything." Was his only response.

"Thank you." Makino gave the young man a melancholic smile. "We're here," she announced.

Ace was greeted by a two-way road and just across it was the entrance gate of Fuschia Town. Relief washed over the young man's body. Seeing houses, buildings and villagers after his hours inside the twisted woods, he sure missed the civilisation.

"Thanks for showing me the way."

"You're welcome. Good night, Ace."

"Ah, thanks again, Makino-san." Ace crossed the road, leaving Makino behind. His mind forced to push anything about Luffy, Ace went straight to the port where Moby Dick was docked.

Soon as Ace cross entered the town, Makino turned back and started her way back Luffy's house.

Granted that he's been away from his family— due to missions their captain ordered them to do— Ace realised again that being away from his rowdy family could made him feel lonely. But he's not going to say that in front of everybody, he's not going to hear the end of their teasing if they were to hear sappy words from him.

A member of his second division, who was assigned to guard the entrance to Moby Dick, spotted the young Commander running towards the ship. His face brightened in an instant. "I found Commander Ace!" He yelled excitedly.

There was a sound of stampede coming from the ship, and most of his ship brothers and sisters peered over the railing to greet him. Each of them were shouting their relief, irritation and gladness to see that their young commander has finally returned.

"The hell did you go, Ace?! We're so worried, man!" Thatch tackled Ace in a bear hug, both slammed into the ground due to the impact.

Ace apologetically grinned to Thatch, one of the first members of Whitebeard Pirate to befriend him durging his 'rebellious stage' on his first 100 days in Moby Dick. Timidly, Ace scratched the back of his head, seeing the unimpressed Marco hovering near him. "Sorry, got lost in the woods and it took me hours to find the exit."

"Hah! I won the bet!" Someone yelled and everyone is in their cheering mode once again. "Pay up, people!"

The pompadoured head chef jumped on his feet. "Share your prize with big brother Thatch, guys!"

"Damn you, traitors!" Ace kicked Thatch, and then the young commander was hot in pursuit to those who joined the bet.

"He's just back for one minute and everything is in chaos once again." Marco muttered in fond exasperation who landed next to their father.

Whitebeard's guffaw boomed in return. "Gurararara! It's good to have Ace back." He said in full affection as he watched his 'children' ran around to avoid the flaming (in literal manner) second division commander's wrath.

 **OnePieCe**

The second day of Whitebeard Pirates was spent for rest and relaxation. Most of the pirates are easy to get along with, so the pirates spent their time with the villagers forming a bond with them. Especially the commanders, who decided to stay in Makino's bar all day, were leisurely spending hours and hours of peace, because not everyday the pirates get to act like a common people— drunk people, that is.

For them, this is a nice change of their usual life.

Makino was chatting with Marco, Vista, Thatch and Blamenco while wiping her newly washed plates and glasses. "I've been meaning to ask you, but until when are you going to stay here?"

Thatch gave the young lady a teasing smile. "Why? Getting tired of our faces now, Makino-san?"

Makino, in return, giggled. "Of course not. You're an entertaining kind of costumers, it would be a saddening thing if you were to leave the place."

"Nice to know you know how make a man feel guilty, Makino-san." Vista chuckled, brushing up his priced moustache.

"Haha anyways, our town will be celebrating the start of the summer season this weekend, we will have our summer festival at the Town's Square. It would be nice if you'll celebrate it with the townsfolk, seeing that you get along with most of us." Makino explained, the Commanders were listening intently to her.

"There would be a short program before we officially start the festival. There would be dancing, singing and of course, eating and drinking. Food and game stalls will be built everywhere, and at the end of the festival, we'll be having a short fireworks display."

Thatch perked up after Makino's explanation. "Ohhh~~~ I like those kind of festivals. C'mon, Marco! Let's go, okay?"

"It is not my decision to make, Thatch, go ask Oyaji instead." Marco answered, drinking his sake after.

"Oyaji likes sake, so the festival will probably sell rare kind of alcohol." Blamenco stated.

"He'll say yes." Vista added.

"Definitely." Thatch concluded.

Marco groaned, "I cannot believe you're bribing our father with sake."

His brothers only laughed at him with Thatch wrapping an arm around Marco's shoulders. "Chill, brother! Besides, it would be so unmanly of me if I were to turn down Makino-san's invitation." The fourth division commander winked at the bartender.

"Ugh, fine. Whatever." Was tired response of Marco.

"My man!" Thatch's grinned to his brothers lifting his cup of sake to initiate a cheer. Makino laughed as well.

Marco could only shake his head in exasperation, but then he freeze when he noticed the absence of their resident pyromaniac. "Where the hell is Ace again?"

One of members of second division was quick to respond. "Haven't seen Commander Ace since breakfast, Marco-san."

"Five hundred belli he's lost again!" Thatch roared in laughter, clearly showing the early signs of alcohol intoxication.

"Cheers!" Was the response of the pirates, throwing their glasses in the air.

Sometimes, Ace is their source of entertainment, and not to mention money.

The crew were busy talking to each other that they missed Makino's smile faltered. She has a very good idea where is Ace right now, and inwardly she hoped that she was wrong.

 **To be continued**

 _I'm having an issues with review button of FFN. My story said I have four reviews, but whenever I tried opening it, another window tab will open only to say 'No reviews are found' or something. And then, anything thing is that I don't receive any alert emails for reviews._

 _I want to read those reviews, those are the things that motivates me :(_

 _Thatch is alive, I want to make the story line before Blackbeard's betrayal. The ugly dude is not with them right now, though. He's on different Moby Dick._

 _I also made Luffy's eyes black here because I have a thing with black eyes. I find them sexy! But I remembered that original Luffy's eyes were brown or something._

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	3. Terzo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Terzo**

Last night, Makino stayed with Luffy. The youngest lady was on her bed wearing her pyjamas as Makino sat on the edge of the bed, telling Luffy about the eccentricities of the Whitebeard Pirates.

About how they remind Makino of Shanks' crew.

She told her all about their grand adventures as well. About an island floating in the sky ( _"They were living on the clouds! And all of the people on sky island have wings on them, too!"_ ), the mermaids ( _"Thatch said they haven't met the Mermaid Princess yet, but she's known to be the most beautiful mermaid of all."_ ), different tribes from different islands ( _"Did you know there's a tribe of giants?"_ ), there was an island with dinosaurs— a group of vicious reptiles that were known to be extinct ( _"They met two giants living in that island full of dinosaurs!"_ ).

All of Makino's stories were courtesy of the pompadoured Fourth Division Commander, Thatch, who was too happy and probably drunk to share their adventures to Makino— or to anyone who was willing to listen to him. Even though as an audience, you will have a difficulty to understand Thatch's words without the help of his sober fellow pirates, because he's too drunk to say words in straight manner.

"He's a funny guy with a funny hairstyle." Makino ended her sentence with an amused chuckle.

Luffy let out a small smile, she was half listening to Makino's story. "I would like to meet him. To hear his amazing stories about their adventure in person. I think that would be a great idea." The blond girl muttered.

Makino faltered. "Luffy-chan..."

"But I guess it is impossible, right?" Luffy let out a dry laugh, before she slipped under her blanket. "Good night, Makino. Thank you for staying with me tonight." She said as she close her eyes.

Makino knew that Luffy was just pretending to be asleep, but she choose not to pursue the topic that was obviously hurting the young girl. Inwardly, she felt guilty for insensitivity. She shouldn't have said anything.

"Good night, Luffy-chan." The bartender stayed for a minute before turning off the lampshade on the night table.

Makino walked slowly to the door, gave Luffy last glance before finally closing the door.

Sensing that Makino has already left the second floor to the guest room in the first floor, Luffy hoisted herself up. Bitterly, her fingers tips grazed her eyelids.

It has been three years since she lost her ability to see. Four years since they found out that her sight was slowly deteriorating. It all started with severe headaches, and then blurring or visions. Before the worst of the signs happened, one day she woke up in panic that she's could no long see anything. Her vision returned later afternoon, but it was blurred and unstable.

It was too difficult to search for donor compatible for her due to her rare type of blood, that and she's also afraid that the operation would fail. But the doctor warned her that the longer she delayed her operation, the lower her chance to see.

Luffy's shoulder slumped and sighed in defeat. When have her life become so misserable? And when have she become so coward?

She used to be so energetic girl. Used to be running around Fuschia, annoying her grandfather to death, chatting to anyone she met.

Now... now, she's caged up in this house unable to see, and probably will never be able to see again.

 **OnePieCe**

Makino left as soon as she helped Luffy get settled in the living room. That was Luffy's daily routine. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Stay in the living room with enough food and drinks near her until Dadan arrives to assist her again. She was allowed to walk around the house, though, but for her convinience everything was laid down for her. Which, to be honest, only worsen Luffy's feeling of miserably.

A year after she lost her sight, she has been under a tutor to teach her to read Braille— a tactile writing system for visually impaired people like her. She's been practicing day after day and she's getting better as well.

Normally, she never considered reading a book, but now that she had lost her ability to see, reading using her fingertips was the way to spend most of her (aside from chatting with her visitors and caretaker).

However, the day came that she grew tired and bored reading all day, that was when the idea of daring herself entered her mind. She was alone in the house, as usual, and when they allowed her to move around inside the house, she was not— under strict order— allowed to step outside of it.

Luffy thought to go out for a minute or two. She only wanted to smell and feel the air outside and return inside before someone can even catch her. For her, it was a brilliant, albeit rebellious, idea.

With her walking stick in her grip, her first dare was to only take a step outside then go back. And then days later, she become as bold as to attempt to walk towards the street lamp she remembered standing a few feet from their doorstep and then back to the house again.

She has been trying to walk around back and forth, and now she knew how to navigate from the door towards the lamp post, towards the tool shed to the right, and towards the gazebo on the left.

Yesterday, she tried to walking a little further from the street light post without the assistance of her trusty walking stick. She used it to detect if something was blocking her way, and without her stick she didn't detect the branch on way resulting for her to trip on it. That was when the Whitebeard pirate— Ace, was it?— appeared.

"Hey, Luffy."

Luffy jumped from sofa, her hand jerked the book away from her lap. "Goodness!"

"Oh, shit. Sorry— I didn't mean... sorry! Are you okay?" Ace scrambled to crawl inside the house through the window and snatched the book Luffy accidentally threw due to fright.

Luffy planted a hand over her pounding chest. She has been using this strange ability of her to 'sense' her surrounding ever since discovering it two years ago. And she's confident that somehow she had master this ability even for a little, but clearly, it was the opposite because this is the second time she did not 'detect' Ace anywhere near her.

After relaxing, Luffy furrowed her eyebrows. "Ace...?"

"Hey," was the casual response of a young man, who just happened to enter, illegally mind you, a house with only a defenceless girl inside.

"What, are you lost again? Sorry, I want to help you, but I don't think a blind girl like me would be able to 'show' you the way back to town." She air quoted the word 'show' with her tongue lacing with friendly sarcasm.

Ace slapped a hand over his knee, "Hah! Hilarious." The young man was not impressed with her teasing his sense of direction.

Luffy giggled, "Seriously, Ace, what are you doing here?"

"Just thought that you'd be bored by now so I stop by to say 'hi'; so hi."

"You're pretty funny, too." Luffy commented with a small smile across her lips.

Ace leaned against the wall next to the window. His eyes roaming inside the living the room. It was kind of homey, with decorations here and there, furniture into the right places, a plant or two in few corners of the house and framed photos lined up on the wall.

Though despite the homey atmosphere, the whole house was eerily quiet, and this only confirmed Ace's dreading conclusion yesterday.

"Are you on your own here all the time?" Maybe that was too blunt, because Luffy visibly cringed at his question.

Luffy started wriggling her hands together, she was obviously not comfortable about the topic, and she was just being polite towards the young pirate. "No, I have my caretaker, Dadan, but sometimes she leaves the house to erhm do some errands. And then there's my grandfather, but work his keeping him from staying here with me, too. Makino and Mayor Woodslap sometimes visit me."

"So, basically, you're alone, huh?"

"I guess so..." she murmured, lowering her eyes on her lap.

"From Makino-san's reaction last night, it seems like you're not allowed to leave the house?"

The young lady's lips formed a forlorn smile. "Grandfather forbade me from leaving the house. He said I'm much safer here."

"But... this isn't living, Luffy."

Luffy swallowed hard. She could feel her throat constricting, inwardly she wanted to scream, 'I know!', but partly, she knew she's to blame as well. She let her grandfather took control of her life as soon as she lost her sight, and she never say anything against it.

"He just... doesn't want me to get hurt if I do things on my own." She whispered again.

"But, you left the house yesterday, it means you want to go outside, right?" Why was he sounding so hopeful?

"I just... want to experience the world outside again, you know. I've been blind for three years and the doctor told me there is only 40% chance of me to see again... I'm afraid to disappoint myself... so I said no... but if..." Luffy bit her lower lip as her eyes begin to glistened with tears of frustration. "If I'm going to be blind for the rest of my life, I wanted to try if I can survive the world without my eyes... but I'm a coward, and grandfather said I can't... that I'm safe inside the house... but... I wanted to prove to him and to myself that I can..."

Luffy sniffed before brushing the tears from her eyes using her arm. "I left the house couple of times before... going to the lamp post and back to the house... I did it, you know... I just... I..." the girl started to hiccup.

"Don't cry," Ace whispered, wiping the tears with his thumb in process. "Tell you what, let's make a bet."

Sniffing, Luffy tilted her head on her side, "A bet?"

"Yeah, let's go outside. I'm a pirate, and we have our ship at the port. If you're able to go outside to the port without hurting yourself or getting into some trouble, then I win. And if I win, I want you to promise me that you'll reconsider the operation."

"What? But—,"

Ace clenched Luffy hand encouragingly. "I know you want to prove your self you can survive the world without your eyes, but surviving the world also means you're willing to take the risk regardless of how low your chance to make it alive. Take the risk, Luffy, or else you'll forever wonder how would it be if you could have just grabbed the opportunity to see again." He said softly.

Ace watched Luffy's serious face in full intrigued and anticipation while she processed the decision she want to make.

"What do you say? I'm going to be your tour guide." Ace nudged the young lady.

Luffy took in a deep breath and nodded her head. "Okay!"

"Atta, girl!"

 **To be continued**

 _Okay so, time for Lesson 101! Yey!_

 _Yes, Luffy can slightly use Observation Haki. In frustration that she can no long see, she tried to use her other sense (touch, hearing, smelling) to help her guide herself around the house and outside. That's when she developed her OH. I know, it's different from canon, but hey, it's a fan fiction and we're somehow allowed to drift away from the canonised version. She's still not an experts Haki user, of course, thus she sometimes doubt this capabilities of hers to use it as her 'guide'. Luffy's OH here is like Usopp's. She can detects auras of living things (animals and humans, so long as it's a living thing) around here._

 _Dadan live with Luffy in the house, but she still has a cabin deep inside the mountain. Luffy doesn't know Dadan as leader of a group of mountain bandits, though. Luffy thought that every morning Dadan goes off to her 'work'._

 _Inspiration keeps hitting me so, yeah, another quick update. Will probably edit this newest chapter soon as I get my beauty sleep, though. (PUBLISHED UNEDITED: 2/11/18 EDITED: 2/12/18)_

 _Read and review, please!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	4. Quarto

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Quarto**

"Okay Luffy we're outside the house and we're going a bit further away from your usual lamp post. It's gonna be tricky, and I want to have your full trust on this." Ace said.

Luffy enthusiastically and a little bit nervous pumped her on hand and gripped the walking stick a little tighter. "O-okay! I'm ready!" She announced, excited for her 'adventure'.

Ace grinned. "Good, first from the door step there are 15 steps until you reach a corner. I'll be waiting for you on that corner okay?"

"From doorsteps 15 steps to a corner. Okay, here I go." Luffy murmured to herself. Her heart was pounded so hard in her chest in anticipation or maybe in excitement, she doesn't know which, and to be honest, she doesn't care, she's finally going out!

Nervously, she took one step forward. _'Okay. I can do this!'_ Luffy inwardly encouraged herself.

Luffy could hear Ace's voice cheering for her. "Good. Use your stick to sense the road, it's kind of uneven and there are sticks, stones and branches scattered here and there."

"7... 8..." The young lady counted in low voice, the closer she got to her initial goal, the brighter her smile gets. And her smile was too contagious because Ace found himself grinning as well.

"Fifteen!" She counted aloud, but then her smile wavered a little. "Are you... in front of me, Ace?"

Ace chuckled softly and then he patted the young lady on her head. "Good job, Luffy." He praised, his voice laced with warmth and swelling with pride for the blind girl.

"Hehe..." Luffy was happy. Immensely happy. The way Ace praised her, encouraged her, feels like Luffy gained an older brother.

"Uhm, Ace...?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I... touch?"

There was an awkward pause, Luffy sweat in embarrassment, her face flushed in deep red realising that she worded it little wrong... and kind of naughty.

Luffy frantically shook her head and hands simultaneously. "I mean...! I mean, I'm asking if I could touch you so I can imagine what you look like! I didn't mean to... uhh... you know... oh gosh, I'm so sorry..." Luffy lowered her head, mortified.

To her relief, though, Ace only chortle amusedly before taking Luffy's hands and guided it to his face. "Of course, you can." He encouraged softly.

She laid her warm palms against Ace's cheeks. "You're quite tall if I'm reaching your face this high." She whispered, gliding her hands to his nose, to his eyelids, to his ears, she even brushed her fingertips over his jaw and to the lower part of his lips. Then slowly she smoothly glided her fingers to Ace's soft hair.

Ace stayed quiet, he doesn't know why his heart was so erratic the moment Luffy's fingers brushed through his always-dishevelled black hair. He trapped the satisfied groan that wanted to escape his lips by bitting his lower lip. The hair on his nape stood when Luffy's hands cascaded to the side of his neck.

 _'Oh, shit! This is turning me on!'_

As much as he wanted to escaped Luffy's touch, one larger part of him wanted to stay. A part which he wanted Luffy to touch him for a little bit longer. _'Holy crap, I sounded so pervert just now! KeepcalmAcekeepfuckingcalm!'_

He wondered how Luffy 'see' him. Does he looked handsome under her fingertips? Why does it matter? It matters, surprisingly, because he doesn't like it if Luffy find him unattractive. In attempt to relax himself, Ace closed his eyes, feeling Luffy's tiny and soft hands all over his upper body.

 _"I wanted to prove to him and to myself that I can..."_ her frustrated voice echoed in his head. Her voice was desperate to prove that she can be independent as she possible can. She's a headstrong, and Ace can see it, although she still needed a little push, Ace knew she has a strong will power to prove her abilities.

And yet, her soft and tiny hands reminded Ace that behind all of strong façade, there is still a fragile lady in her that Ace wanted to protect. But Luffy doesn't want protection, on the contrary, Luffy has rebellious streak against it. The second division commander lifted a corner of his lips. God, this woman really is so complicated, but in a good way.

Ace felt his heart stopped for millisecond when he felt the warmth of her hands over his wide chest. Can she even feel the pounding of his heart right now? Please, don't notice it!

His mind protested when Luffy retracted her hands from him. She took a small step backward and smiled to Ace. "Thank you, Ace."

"Oh, uhh no problem... haha... you're welcome to... uh... you know touch me again or something..." Wow that sounded so wrong in so many levels.

There was a silence between him and Luffy before both of them erupted in loud laugh. Oh well, so long as she's enjoying this 'getaway'.

 **OnePieCe**

"After 15 steps, you'll turn to your left. The path is even more uneven, so be careful. We are kind of far from the stone stairs that, prepare your self. Okay, 61 steps to the stone stairs."

"15 steps to corner. Turn right. 61 steps to stone stairs." Luffy repeated, taking her steps again, this time Ace was beside him.

"You're doing good."

"Thanks." Luffy smiled, "Ace? Why did you decide to become a pirate?"

There was a short pause, and Luffy that she had asked something too sensitive for Ace. She wanted to retract her words, but Ace finally answered.

"Freedom," was his only response.

"Freedom?" Luffy repeated, confused.

Ace scratched the back of his head. He was a little bit awkward to open up with Luffy, but somehow, he get this peculiar feeling that he's okay if he say anything to Luffy. He wanted her to know, even a little, about him, just as much as he wanted to know a lot of things about her.

"My father is... not exactly the most favourite person of the whole world, especially the marines. I've been shunned since I was a kid because of my parentage. Believe or not, as a child, I used to live with a lot of angst and anger to the world. I've been called too many names, too. The son of the sinner, the devil's offspring, blah, blah. I lost count of the too many creative nicknames they have for me." Ace let out a dry laugh.

Luffy only listened, but she let out a soft hiss when he listed down his different degrading nicknames. He appreciate her displeasure, even though he doesn't know why she's pissed. He'd like to think that she's upset for him.

"Everything somehow changed when I met my brother, we're not blood related by the way, but we considered each other as family. His name is Sabo. He used to be part of an important clan in high class society, but he grew tired and ashamed the way his parents treated down the people they considered below them, a.k.a the commoners. They're too inhumane, he said. So, he ran away."

He continued talking, he knew that Luffy kept half of her attention to her steps, and has the other half to him. His eyes were gazing at found remembrance. The last time he spoke to Sabo was few months ago. Gotta remind himself later to write a letter for him anytime this week, he really does miss his brother. Although, both of them pursued different path from each other and they might have gained friends or even family along the way, they still kept their strong bond as brothers intact.

"He was the first to make me feel what it felt like to have a family. What love means. He also taught me what freedom is. He said that I should exist on my own term. That I should live my life as Ace, not as my father's son. So I decided to become a pirate. To travel the whole world without restriction, without cursing my existence because of my father's past reputation. I wanted to be free from all those shackles."

When he noticed that Luffy was quiet and was being an attentive audience to him, Ace scratched his head bashfully. "Hah! Look at me, telling you my sob story."

Luffy shook her head slowly, a soft smile playing across her lip. "I'm kind of glad, actually. It takes a huge effort to someone to open himself up, especially to one who you only just met. I'm glad you're considering me as a friend. Thank you." She said softly, and tilted her head to my side. "I hope I'll get the chance to meet Sabo."

Ace blinked couple of times. Warmth spread across his chest at the thought of introducing Sabo to Luffy, but more so to the idea of seeing Luffy again after this, maybe next time they meet she can finally see him. "Yeah. That would be great."

"Anyways, we're almost at the stone steps. How're you holding up?"

"Yes, surprisingly. I'm kind of enjoying this, to be honest."

Ace walked with Luffy until they've reached stone stairs. "Okay, stop. In front of you is a stone stair. The steps are narrowed so you have to be extra careful. Six steps down."

"Okay."

Ace watched Luffy as she use the stick to gaged how each steps. He patiently mimicked her as she took one step down at a time. Soon as they've reached the bottom, Ace stood protectively in front of Luffy, knowing the highway was too close to the young lady.

"Good, good. And we're in the trickiest, and not to mention, most dangerous part. The highway is just two steps from your spot. Cars and other vehicles travelled this road that's why I said it's dangerous. Since you cannot use your eyes, you need to hone and use of your other senses. Before crossing the road, try to listen and feel if something is coming this way."

"No, nothing," was Luffy quick answer after only a few second.

Surprised, Ace lifted his eyebrows. "That was quick. Are you sure?"

Luffy nodded her head. "Hundred percent. I... don't freak out, okay? I never told anyone about this, even to my grandfather, I can... I don't know, sense, maybe, my surroundings if I try to concentrate on it. I can feel the presence of living things near me."

It took a minute before Ace realised what she was talking about. She has been using an Observation Haki for god knows how long, and she was not even aware of it! "You have haki..." Ace muttered to himself, his grey eyes wide in mixture of shock and disbelief.

"A what?"

The young man blinked before shaking his head, and stuttered a reply, "N-nothing."

"Oh, okay. Anyways, it has been bothering me, though, because yesterday I didn't sense you near me." Luffy ended her sentence with a frown.

The young pirate doesn't know how to explain the haki. Might as well as for Marco or Izou's help later. "It's because I'm an expert in stealth mode haha!" He excused. "W-Well, that's good, continue to practice that skill because it will help you to go to different places even if you're alone."

"Okay!"

Discovering her as a haki-user really caught Ace off guard. Luffy continue to surprise him, and although she was insistent of never wanting to be treated differently, the fact remained that she can use an ability that only selected people can use proved that she's one of a kind. Maybe this is one of reasons that her family was insistent to hide her from the world.

 **To be continued**

 _Luffy's haki was explained from previous chapter._

 _As usual, this is unedited version. Will probably edit it tomorrow after work. But I am just excited to share this newest update to you! From here on out, there's going to be a real slow update, though._

 _Read and review, please!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	5. Quinto

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Quinto**

"Anyways, 12 steps to cross the road." He said, heightening his own Observation haki just in case.

Luffy nodded and started crossing the roa. "12 steps to cross the road..."

After that, Ace was relieved when they finally got over on the other end side of the road. He then led Luffy towards the Fuschia village.

"Uhm, Ace, are we going straight to the port?" Asked Luffy.

Ace shook his head. "Nah, that's boring. We'll stop by first to different places, just so you could get use to doing this. And only after that we'll go to Moby Dick." He said.

"Is that the name of your ship?"

"Yes, and it's humongous!" The young pirate excitedly answered.

Ace continued talking about some of their adventures to Luffy, whilst keeping most of his attention to the blind girl. He was leading the girl to Party's Bar, and it took a moment for Ace to realised that some of the villagers were curiously looking at Luffy, and few were whispering to each other.

"Isn't that...?"

"I thought she left the town with her grandfather?"

"Oh poor lass, I 'member her runnin' 'round the village, and now look at her."

Ace frown. He doesn't like the idea of these people gossiping with each other and being inconsiderate to Luffy's feelings. Even though they were being sympathetic towards the girl, it doesn't give them the right to look at her like she's the most invalid person in the world.

Ace threw a nasty glare at the villagers before giving back his attention to Luffy. "Don't mind them." He said, sensing the tension from the girl.

It doesn't surprise Ace that Luffy noticed the gossiping villagers, but she chose not to say anything and only sigh in defeat. "I know that they don't mean any harm. I just wish they stop feeling sorry for me, I already felt sorry enough for myself." She mumbled, her pacing started to get slower.

Maybe it's not such a bright idea to just suddenly waltz into the village where the towns-people were used to see an active version of herself. The last time she was here was when she saw Shanks and his crew off. She still have her eyesight, however she was also suffering from severe headache that day, and days before that.

"Why would you even feel sorry? You're doing good on your own, if you ask me." Ace answered, boosting the girl's confidence.

Luffy felt her cheeks warmed. "Thanks..." She was really grateful to Ace that he knew what to say just to keep her self-esteem up.

Ace gave the girl a toothy grin. "No problem. We're here! Party's bar." The young pirate patted her on her head.

"What?! Isn't that Makino's Bar? Why did you take me here?" Luffy was panicking.

Ace plopped his hand over her tensed shoulders. "Hey, relax. And if you want to convince your grandfather, I thought you should convince Makino of what you can do, right? She's an ally, Luffy, and if you wanna wage war with someone, the first thing you need to do is to find a supporter."

"B-but—,"

"It's okay, Luffy. And if you really don't want to go inside, I'm okay with it. I'm not going to force you."

Luffy quickly processed everything in her mind. He's right though. If she wanted to convince her grandfather, she needed the help and testimony from either Makino or Dadan, much better from both of them. "Uhm, wait... let me just... ready myself." She patted her chest softly.

"Inhale... exhale... inhale... exhale... you gonna be okay, now?"

She heaved a deep breath and exhaled slowly, her pounding heart was slowly calming. Her round face was brimming with determination now. "U-uhn, I think I'm ready."

Ace nodded, feeling glad that Luffy was showing more and more confidence. "Good. Now you're going to climb the three steps stairs. Great, you are doing great. And then two steps forward. Okay, now you're face to face with the bar's door." Ace stood beside Luffy.

"Okay." The girl nodded, but a light frown was decorating her forehead. "But why is it so loud inside? Is there a party going on?"

Maybe Makino has costumers inside? Luffy was starting to have second thoughts realising there are strangers inside the bar.

Ace chuckled goodheartedly. "Nah, those are just my crew mates. Probably. The one thing we pirates loved to do is to party." The young man said, ending his sentence with an amused grin.

"Why?" Come to think of it, Shanks and his crew also spent most of their time drinking and partying. The young girl thought it was only Shanks and the others' habit.

"I'd like to think it's because we all loved to live our life to its fullest. Although, for my crew mates, they only just like to be loud and be annoying as possible." Ace might worded it as if he was annoyed, but Luffy could clearly hear fondness and affection laced through the young commander's words.

A soft smile crossed Luffy's lips. "They sound like a good people." The prospect of meeting Ace's family excite her.

Ace grinned cheekily. "They're the best. You ready?"

"Yes, I am."

"Okay, just push the door to enter the bar."

"'Kay..."

 **OnePieCe**

The voices inside the bar died down as soon as they noticed Luffy's presence. What surprised the whole pirate crew was their youngest commander was standing a little bit close to the unnamed lady.

It's not like Ace has an allergy when it comes to women outside their 'family'. As much as they can tell, Ace is not a virgin, but they just don't normally see him engaging any sort of contact with opposite sex unless he's drunk, or in a mission. But now, to see him talking to this unknown lady rather affectionately caught the crew off guard. Ace was emitting soft aura while looking at her.

The much awaited reaction roared after the crew got over their shock.

"Ace— What the heck?!"

"Ace... kidnapped a girl?!"

"You insolent lad?! Didn't we drill the importance of courting?!"

"Acey, whyyyyy?" Thatch cried in fake disappointment, and hang himself into Ace's back.

Ace shook Thatch off him. "Shut up, idiot." Was Ace's annoyed response to his family. Sometimes, they really do love embarrassing the poor commander.

"Wait... Luffy-chan?!" Makino exclaimed, she just exited the back kitchen, but her eyes widened in shock and worry as soon as she spotted Luffy standing by her bar's doorway. "What are you doing here?" Makino was about to approach the girl when Ace waved a finger at her.

' _No, she can do it on her own.'_ Was Ace's eyes trying to say to Makino.

The bartender was torn, she doesn't know what to feel, seeing the young girl that she has come to care and love as sister was able to appear here in her bar after being locked up in the house for three years. When Garp proposed the idea of keeping Luffy hidden inside the house after the young girl refused the operation for the first time, to say that she was saddened was an understatement.

Luffy has always been an active little girl, she was always going against her grandfather's order. When he said she'd marry a marine, she said no. When he said she'd go to a prestigious all-girl's school in West Blue, she said no. When he said she shouldn't approach Shanks and his crew, yes, she did the opposite and befriended all members of Akagami Pirates. She even formed a special friendship with Shanks himself, so much that Shanks gave her his precious straw-hat before leaving the island.

But when she had lost her vision, she became less and less cheerful until she lost her spark and contented herself following her grandfather's orders. She stayed inside the house, she studied Braille even though she's not really into books, and she hid Shanks' straw-hat inside her cabinet.

This outcome saddened Makino, and has been doing things that could revert Luffy back to her old self, even just a little. And when they were presented the possibility of recovering her vision by transplantation, Luffy turned down the idea. The young lady had lost all her will to see again.

"Fifteen steps forward to the bar counter." Ace said, and when Luffy nodded and started a careful pace towards the counter, Ace followed suit signalling to his comrades to make enough space for the blind girl.

The Commanders left the counter and quietly stood on sideline, watching the scene unfolding before them.

Luffy smiled, standing in front of Makino from the another side of the counter. "Hello Makino. I hope you don't mind me staying here for a bit."

Luffy's voice snapped Makino from her thoughts, and re-focused her attention to Luffy again. "O-of course not, but how did you…" The bar owner's voice trailed off, her worried eyes turned to ace and Luffy back and forth before realisation finally dawn on her after connecting the pieces together.

Ace gripped Luffy's shoulder encouragingly. "She wanted to prove to herself that she can survive the world on her own. I'm here to help her." Ace offered to explain.

"That's—,"

A sudden sound of someone slamming the the door open cut Makino's words. A panicking Dadan entered the establishment.

"Makino! This is terrible! Luffy's gone and—!" Dadan's flustered expression was automatically changed into surprised and confused one. "Y-you're here... how...?" The older lady's eyes narrowed when she caught sight of Ace's hand over Luffy's shoulder. She suspiciously scanned the whole bar, where the members of Whitebeard pirates stood in silence.

"L-let me explain, Dadan." Luffy squeaked, her voice was laced with fear and uncertainty.

"I don't think I need explanation for this. You." Dadan angrily spat at Ace pointing an accusing finger at him. "Did you broke into our house and forced her out? For what? Knowing that she's blind and defenceless so you wanted to take advantage and use her to sniffed some money out of her? As expected from lowly pirate scum like you!"

Marco and the other commanders were able to satiate their comrades' rage after hearing degrading insults from the lady. This is nothing new for them. They are all aware that not all pirates are as benevolent as Whitebeard's, but that doesn't change the fact that they wanted to give the lady a punch or two themselves for all of her false accusation.

Ace kept his cool, he did not remove his hand over Luffy's trembling shoulder— who is obviously distraught about this Dadan lady— on the contrary he travelled his hand reassuringly against Luffy's back.

Makino carefully approached the older lady. "Dadan-san, please, calm down."

"Calm down?! How can I be calm when I came home only to discover that Luffy was not there?! And she's with some pirate, no less!" Dadan lashed out, her narrowed eyes brimming with anger.

"I know, but yelling won't solve everything." Makino calmly addressed the angry Dadan.

Dadan huffed, brushing Makino lightly. "I know what can solve this atrocities! You!" she faced Ace again before pulling the blind young girl to her side, Luffy yelped when she was harshly dragged from where she was standing. It was a good thing that Makino was quick to help the girl from falling down. "Stay away from Luffy! Never show yourself to her ever again!"

"Dadan..." Luffy called out ever so slightly, her unseeing eyes were brimming with upset tears.

Ace, whose patience was slowly running out, glared back at Dadan. He crossed his arms together. "You and I know that Luffy is free to make her own decisions. If she decided she wanted to leave and explore the world outside, then as her caretaker, it is your job to respect it." Ace was not shouting, in fact he was addressing the older lady as calm as possible. But everyone in the bar could notice that he was emitting an intimidating aura, not to scare Dadan, but to show her his seriousness about helping Luffy.

Dadan's angry face wavered. She straightened her back, pursed her lips in a thin line and stared back at Ace's grey orbs. Different emotions were swirling in her eyes. "Luffy is not safe outside. Being blind is one thing, but there's deeper reason why she has to stay inside where she is protected." Was Dadan's calm response.

"I can see that you love Luffy like she's your own daughter. But sometimes people don't need protection. Sometimes all they really need is a hand to hold, an ear to listen and a heart to understand them." Nostalgia hit Ace after repeating the words Sabo told him during those old days that he was so angry to the world and to his fate as the run-away son of the infamous King of Pirates, Gol D. Roger.

Tense silence reigned over, with Dadan and Ace having a staring match, neither want to back down.

"Dadan..."

Dadan flinched a little when she felt Luffy's trembling hands over her's. She looked down to the blind girl to see her eyes overflowing with tears and emotions, sadness dominating most of it.

"I went outside on my own. This isn't the first time I did it, but this is the farthest I got. And please don't get mad at Ace. He was only helping me." Luffy bit her lower lip, she was distraught by everything that is happening. Makino, as always, was by Luffy's side, running a hand over her back to console the upset young lady. "I know you and Grandpa mean well. I know that you're only looking out for me. But please let me do it. Let me leave the house sometimes. And maybe this can boost my confidence to accept the operation again. Please?"

Dadan looked conflicted while staring at Luffy's determined blind eyes. For the first time in three years, the older lady could finally see— albeit subtle— the old Luffy that they all thought had disappeared. And in the end, Dadan only groan as she rubbed her hands over her face in exasperation.

"Fine. Alright, I'll talk to Garp...-san to allow you to leave the house. But no more leaving the house without my permission, okay?"

Luffy's face automatically shone brightly. "Thank you!"

"Aw, I'm happy for you, Luffy-chan!" Makino gleefully said and hugged the young lady. Luffy, grinning, hugged the bar owner back.

Ace lifted the corner of his lip. Feeling exceptionally happy for Luffy.

"Thank you, too, Ace."

"Nah, I didn't do anything...—!" Ace's voice trailed off when he felt a pair of arms wrapped itself around his neck. "Uhh..."

"Thank you. So, so much." Luffy sobbed, nuzzling her cheek against Ace's shoulder. Soon as he felt the warm wetness on shoulder, Ace's one hand rubbed Luffy's back while the other was soothingly patting her head.

"You're welcome." He whispered back, ignoring the gaping of his comrades, the irritated expression on Dadan's face, and the cooing sound coming from the gushing Makino. As of this moment, he only wanted to console the girl, and he's immensely happy for Luffy.

Thatch, who snapped back to reality when he realised one thing. "Wait... Luffy's grandfather is named Garp-san? You don't mean, Monkey D. Garp the Vice Admiral, right?" The fourth division commander was laughing nervously. He's hoping for anyone to deny his question.

Remembering her audience, Luffy released Ace and with the help of the young commander, she faced the whole crew of Whitebeard Pirates. She smiled brightly. "Uhm, sorry for the late introduction. My name is Luffy, Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meet you all. And yes, Garp is my grandfather." Luffy introduced, smiling innocently at Ace's family.

She failed to noticed, haki and all, the jaw-dropping expression of the pirates; Ace included. Oh great, their second division commander befriended (of all people) a very, very unique girl who is directly related to none other than Vice Admiral Garp, a scary Marine with a scary kind of punch who lived to scare the shit out of them, even few of the Commanders.

Great job, Ace.

 **To be continued**

 _The late update, I'm so sorry. I was busy the past few days._

 _Please review! Thank you!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	6. Sesto

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Sesto**

"I'll be fine with Ace's help, Dadan." Luffy said countless of time after her caretaker slash foster mother volunteered her assistance in exchange of the young pirate.

After realising Ace's clean intention about helping Luffy, Dadan apologised to Ace and his comrades, in which the latter accepted in good-nature manner. But the orange hair middle-aged lady was still not comfortable of leaving Luffy in the care of a total stranger, no matter how good his intention was. And so, she enlisted herself as her ward's escort, but the blind young lady turned her down.

"But—,"

"I'm going to be okay with Ace just fine. Stop worrying yourself, Dadan. And besides, I'll only be walking around the town, so I'm sure it's safe." Luffy cut off Dadan's word. She stood up from the stool and grabbed her walking stick. "Let's go?" She addressed the youngest commander.

Ace immediately stood up and approached Luffy, but not after giving an reassuring glance to Dadan. This time he allowed Luffy to gripped the hem of his dark red shirt.

"I'll be back." Luffy softly said to her worrying foster mother.

Dadan has always been awkward when it comes to showing her maternal care for the young girl, especially since she was insistent that she doesn't have maternal instinct in her. But as soon as Garp placed Luffy under her care, Dadan did her best to raise the girl. All awkwardness included.

"I'll bring her back home before night fall." Ace addressed the worried older lady.

Obviously, she has no chance of changing the young lady's mind, Dadan defeatedly nodded to Ace. "She needs to be home by six." She said sternly as she planted her hands over her wide hips.

"Of course." Ace agreed almost immediately before escorting Luffy out the bar.

Dadan kept her eyes glued to the door. Sensing her apprehension, Makino planted a hand over Dadan's forearm. "She's going to be okay, Dadan." She said softly.

"This might be weird coming from us, but since we are his family, we know him best. I promised you that Ace will not do anything to hurt Luffy-chan." Thatch, who was back drinking and was sitting at the bar's counter once again.

All of the pirates nodded their head in agreement. Sure, most of the time, Ace used his head first before his brain, and he has some issue with anger management. But, it was too obvious that in short span of time, Ace created a bond with the young lady. And once Ace connected with someone, he will treat that person like a family. So, Luffy is safe with Ace, and no harm will fall on her if she stayed with their second division commander. They can all guarantee that.

"Yeah, I guess..." Dadan absentmindedly answered, her eyes still lingering on the door.

Makino pulled the worried Dadan to one of the stool, and grabbed a cup of sake for the older lady. Dadan grunted a 'thanks' before swallowing the alcohol. No sense of worrying herself for Luffy's safety. Trying to satiate her worries, Dadan offered the empty cup Makino, the latter happily indulged and filled her cup again.

 **OnePieCe**

Luffy was full of self achievement once they arrived the port. Even though Ace was with her the whole time, the young pirate let her do all things on her own. Only offering help from time to time if Ace deemed it necessary.

Also, once the villagers established the idea of a blind Luffy walking around the village, they all went back to their usual routine. However, few of them would glance worriedly at her, there were number of times when Luffy almost fell down that the villagers would automatically aide the young lady, but Ace will only shake his head and allowed Luffy to straightened herself on her own.

However, Ace was also protective of Luffy. There were two kids teasing Luffy, calling out unpleasant names, while the latter was ignoring the kids Ace, on the contrary, was beyond annoyed by the brats. Activating his devil's fruit (which of course scared the kids and some of the villagers nearby), his flames were licking on his shoulder while he ran after the scared children. When he finally caught the kids, Ace lightly flicked the children each on their forehead as their punishment and scolded them for teasing Luffy.

After kids apologised to Luffy, the young lady only patted their head and reminded them to never tease people with disabilities again. The children chorused their sincere agreement.

On the Moby Dick, Ace introduced Luffy to the remaining commanders and some of the present Whitebeard pirates still on the ship. Lastly, Luffy could feel excitement and fondness seeping from Ace when he introduced her the captain of the ship. Edward 'Whitebeard' Newgate, the captain and the foster father of the members of Whitebeard crew.

Luffy remembered her grandfather telling her stories about Whitebeard, that he's the one captain close to discovering One Piece, the greatest treasure of all. But for Ace, he is the best father an orphan like him could ever asked for. He accepted Ace into his family and as his son, flaws, angst and all.

Once Ace introduced Luffy to the people he considered as his 'family', the young pirate dragged Luffy towards his favourite spot in Moby Dick. The young lady yelped when Ace scooped her in his arms in bridal-style.

"Hold tight." Ace said before he climbed into the ship's large head figure.

"Uhm, where are we?" Luffy asked, she doesn't know why she was feeling fidgety. Maybe because Ace was carrying her in rather intimate way or maybe because she could feel the warmth oozing from Ace's body to her.

"In my most favourite spot on Moby Dick." He said before carefully placing the lady in the centre of the figure head, making sure that she's far enough from its edges.

"Wow, the air is so refreshing." Luffy closed her eyes, savouring the cold wind hitting against her round face and body.

Ace grinned cheekily. "I know right? More so if the ship is moving. The wind feels nice during those time. I will sleep here, or if I just want to be lazy, I would lay here for hours."

Ace lay on his back besides Luffy, he has his one arm under his head and the other on his stomach. Comfortable silence perched between the two.

"It was totally surprising to learn that your grandfather is the Garp the fist, though." Ace commented afterwards.

Luffy chuckled softly. "Was it too surprising to know that my grandfather is a Vice Admiral?" She asked jokingly, but to be honest, people would often react with shock or disbelief whenever she mention that Monkey D. Garp is her grandfather.

Ace snorted. "No offence, but yeah, a bit. I mean. I can't even imagine any girl hitting off with a scary old man like your grandfather. Even some of the old timer pirates in Whitebeard is hell scared of your grandfather." Ace remembered the tales he once heard from his comrades, especially to those who came face to face with the Vice Admiral.

What scare them the most was Garp's haki infused punch, which could split an island in two according to the rumours. To say that Garp's punch hurts like a bitch was an understatement of the century. Ace was glad that he has yet to meet the said Vice Admiral in a battlefield, and in all honesty, he was not looking forward of meeting him anytime soon. With Devil's fruit or not, Ace doesn't think that he'll be able to even land a punch on him.

Luffy's chuckle turned into a soft laugh. "Haha grandpa did tell me that asking grandma out on one date took a lot of convincing on his side more so to ask her hand in marriage. She's a real headstrong, and Grandpa was all over her." She could remember her grandfather praising her deceased grandmother. Even though she's just an ordinary citizen, doesn't mean she's a damsel in distress. Grandpa said grandma can literally kick an ass or two.

She was only three when her grandmother passed away, though, so she can barely remember anything about her.

"If you don't mind me asking, Ace, where're you from?" Luffy carefully inquired.

"Hmm? Oh, was born and raised in South Blue." Ace nonchalantly answered.

"Is that where you met Sabo?"

Ace started telling her about his past, about the life he had on the island, he told her the sacrifice his mother made for him, Ace even revealed to her about the real identity of his biological father, which surprised the young lady.

"Your father is Gold Roger?" Inquired in surprise manner.

Ace was getting uncomfortable, only because he doesn't want Luffy turning away from him after knowing his connection to the most hated King of Pirates. Ace sat up and hunched his back forward, trying to make himself as small as possible. "Y-yeah, but for me, Whitebeard is my only father." He mumbled.

Silence followed after. Ace was hoping for Luffy to speak. Even if she wanted to yell at him for existing, he's okay with that, because he's used to hear people that the 'spawn' of the devil like Roger should be exterminated, like they equaled Ace's existence with a pestering insect. So long as she speak what was on her mind. ' _Please say something. Anything. Please.'_ Ace inwardly begged. But the mere thought of Luffy denying or cursing his existence hurt him a hundred fold.

" _I used to live with a lot of angst and anger to the world. I've been called too many names, too. The son of the sinner, the devil's offspring, blah, blah. I lost count of the too many creative nicknames they have for me."_

On the other hand, Luffy could still hear the bitterness and anger seeping from Ace's words back then. The young lady can understand Ace's hatred towards the people who detest his father. Her own father was dubbed as public enemy number one, so she get the same spite from others who recognised her last name, or to those who discovered her connection to the head of the revolutionary army.

However, in comparison to Ace's childhood, she grew up nurtured with love and care by her grandparents, Dadan, Makino and Mayor Woodslap, and by extension, the villagers of Fuschia, despite knowing her paternal background. She was grateful for that.

Her heart yearned for Ace, imagining a child version of this young pirate, growing up hearing obscene words like he listed down before. Hearing people questioning your existence because of your parentage. No child should be judged because of their parents' reputation.

Luffy careful reached up and clumsily cupped Ace's cheek. She felt him tensed under her touch, but immediately relax when her thumb soothingly rubbed his cheek.

The young lady beamed at Ace. "For me, you are perfect exactly as you are, Ace. With all your flaws and problems, there's no need to feel like you're not worth it. Just always remember how valuable you are to those people who care for you."

Ace blinked his eyes. When Luffy's words finally sink in, Ace could feel his lower lip trembled in mixed emotions while trying to choke the cry down in his throat.

A short pause passed before Luffy felt a warm and lightly trembling hand over her's. He pressed her hand more against cheek, before Luffy heard him let out a soft hallow laugh.

"I..." Ace remained speechless. He was too emotional to even compose coherent words. And he felt like his chest would burst in overwhelming emotions right now.

When he can no longer able to stop himself, Ace pulled Luffy toward him and wrapped his shaking arms around the shocked young lady.

The youngest commander pressed his face into the crook of her neck. Ace doesn't know why her words affected him so much like this. Not using the same words but with exact sense, Sabo and the others have once said the same thing to him, and he was happy to hear it from his brother and his family.

But with Luffy, god, her words hit right through his heart and it felt like she just magically erased the negative aftermath he suffered— and still suffering until awhile ago— from the past 20 years. With her words, she boosted up his self-worth hundred folds. Her words made him glad that he's existing, and that he's perfect the way he is right now.

Inhaling her sweet aroma, Ace nuzzled closer, pulling the young lady as close as possible without hurting her. He was ecstatic when she wrapped her arms around his torso in return. She started patting his back and hummed softly as if she was trying to calm a child. A small smile grazed his lips before making himself more comfortable in Luffy's arms.

 **To be continued**

 _Tadah! Another update :) I'm sorry if this feels like a rushed story, I'm going to edit this when I have some time today, so please bear with me. I'm just excited to upload this one._

 _The story is nearing its end! Only couple of chapters until its ending :'( I'm going to miss writing this once it's finished. I had fun writing it!_

 _Okay! History 101! My Luffy's grandmother died when she's three years due to illness. She took care Luffy for three years before passing away. Luffy was three years old when Garp asked (coughFORCEDcough) Dadan to look after his granddaughter. Luffy's parents are still alive and they're somewhere out there. I'm going to leave it like that._

 _Ace and Sabo in my story were both born and grew up in South Blue. After Rouge died during childbirth, Ace was placed under the care of an orphanage institution. But her run away from it when he was five. He lived as a homeless kid, stealing food and money to live, until he stole something from Sabo._

 _So anyways, I'm not going to delved deeper into Ace's past, so I'm also going to leave it like that as well. And thank your for supporting my story! You guys are the best._

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	7. Settimo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Settimo**

When Ace finally released Luffy from his arms, the young man was thankful that she could not see his flushed face. "S-sorry. Just got carried away." He mumbled, and reluctantly scooted away from the young lady.

Luffy merely grinned at him. "You have every right to feel whatever emotions you want. You aren't over exaggerating. You're feeling and that's okay." She answered softly.

Ace felt his chest tightening again. "Thanks, Luffy," was all he could say, because in all honesty, he wanted to lock her in his arms again, and never let her go. But he doesn't want Luffy to think that he's taking advantage of her. That was the last thing he wanted her to think.

But, every good thing must come to an end.

Izou appeared behind the two. "Ace, it's getting late. Make sure you bring Luffy back home, okay?" Ever so elegant and a gentleman (despite wearing feminine clothings), Izou was the one who drilled good manners and proper conduct into Ace, so it wasn't surprising that he's also the one to remind Ace to escort Lufft back even if the young man has all the intention of bringing her back home.

Pirate or not, for Izou, it is beyond shameful and an unforgivable to act like a barbarian.

"Of course." Ace answered before helping Luffy to get down from the figure head.

Luffy said her goodbyes to Whitebeard and the others before she allowed Ace to walk her back to her house. The blind lady was thankful that the day went by without a hitch. She was able to walk around town successfully. Maybe later, she'll be able to rethink about accepting the operation.

Luffy took noticed the change in Ace after their little intimate scene back on the figure head. He was walking a little closer to her than before. Ace even held her hand the whole time, which surprised Luffy, while he walked her back home. She didn't say anything against the gesture, Luffy was even happy that Ace was showing a bit of intimacy with her. But, why was she so glad with just simple holding hands? Oh well, she'll ask Makino tomorrow, for now she just wanted to savour this short moment with Ace. Luffy wanted to engraved it into her system the sense of Ace's warmth coursing through his palm.

 **OnePieCe**

Ace is feeling giddy the whole time he was walking Luffy back to her house. With his body yearning for Luffy's touch, he nonchalantly held her hand and lightly gripped it the whole time. The young pirate was hoping that Luffy would not think bad about the gesture, so he immensely glad and relieve that she never said anything against it.

Ace was feeling dejected as soon as he saw Luffy's house, and to nobody's surprise, Dadan was impatiently waiting outside. They weren't able to say anything to each other except a quick goodbyes because Dadan quickly ushered the young lady inside the house.

He was slightly surprised when Dadan poked her head outside after few seconds of listening to the arguing voices of Luffy and Dadan from the other side of the door. She gave Ace one straight glare before saying, "She said she would like to walk around the town with you tomorrow." And then she slammed the door on him again without waiting for a response.

Not like he's against seeing Luffy again, though, but it would be nice to talk to her or bid the young lady good night. Oh well, at least he'll see her again tomorrow. With one last smile, Ace turned around and started his way back to the ship.

 **OnePieCe**

Ace was not aware of the big grin etched across his lips, or the way he skipped his way across the plank towards the deck of Moby Dick, or how his family was eyeing him weirdly. He was too overjoy that he was ignoring his surroundings, and his family chose not to interrupt him with his inner fascination.

Except for Thatch, who loves to tease his brothers, especially Ace. The fourth division commander wrapped an arm around the young commander. "Welcome back, lover boy!" He jived.

Ace only responded with an unimpressed look. "There goes my beautiful evening." He grunted with fond exasperation.

Thatch teasingly clutched his chest. "Ouch. Aren't you too harsh to your most favourite big brother?"

The second division commander raised his eyebrows. "I'm not harsh to Marco."

"Jerk." Was Thatch response before ruffling the young commander's hair affectionately.

Ace guffawed and pushed the older commander away from him before he tried fixing his messy hair. "Haha. Seriously, Thatch, what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be somewhere annoying the shit out of some poor souls or something?"

Thatch gasped over-dramatically, faking his offended expression. "Hey, don't make it sound like you've never taken a part during those 'annoying moments' you're talking about."

"Most of it I was forced by a man named Thatch."

Thatch snorted. "I'll call bull to that. Anyways, how was your date with Luffy-chan?" He even wiggled his eyebrows suggestively which earned a disgusted expression from Ace.

"Please, never do that again. And it wasn't a date. I was only escorting her around the town."

Thatch lifted an eyebrow, clearly not buying Ace's answer but chose not to say anything about it. "O~~kay! Let's go along with that for now." He responded. "Hey, bro, did you know that this town will be celebrating the summer festival tomorrow evening?"

"So?"

"So, my dear little Acey, why don't you ask Luffy-chan to that festival? It'll be fun, right?"

Ace pursed his lips, as if trying to gage if asking the young lady to the festival is a good idea or not. "I don't know. It'll be full of people for sure, and Luffy is still getting used to be around others." Sure, Luffy had managed to walk around the town after being locked in the house for three years, but Ace could clearly see that she's not used of people treating her with special attention. And she doesn't like it that they were eyeing her with sympathy.

With that thoughts, Ace blinked his eyes when he caught sight of Thatch's weird expression. His older brother was eyeing him solemnly, like he's seeing a whole new different Ace just now. "What?" He asked, feeling a bit conscious under his older brother's... peculiar gaze.

Thatch only shook his head, his small smile never leaving his lips. "Nothing, Acey, if you haven't noticed it on your own then telling you now would make the revelation less special." He answered sagely. Thatch then clasped Ace's by his shoulders. "Anyways! I'm sure it'll be okay! You'll be with her gallantly escorting a fragile mademoiselle while enjoying the romantic atmosphere."

"There is no romance between us. How many times must I tell you that?" Ace answered in exasperation before rolling his eyes. Why does he insist that there's something more than friendship between him and Luffy?

Well, sure he enjoyed being with her. He liked staying as close as possible with her. He liked seeing her pinkish lips curved into a smile. He enjoyed seeing how she pursed her lips when she's unsatisfied or annoyed by something. He also liked the way she touched him with her soft, fragile hands. That made him stop. It confused the young pirate that he took noticed of too many of Luffy's quirks and expressions — little or not— in less than a day. Maybe because he find her so interesting?

Thatch's light laugh brought him back from his reverie. "Sure, sure. But in all seriousness, you should consider in taking Luffy-chan in to the festival. Makino-san said it has been years since the last time the young lady experienced festivities. Do it for Luffy-chan and Makino-san."

Ace blinked his eyes. He could count in one hand the times Thatch would say something serious or dramatic. The head cook was always goofing around that when the time comes he's being serious or giving out 'words of wisdom' as he always put it, it never failed to mesmerised the youngest commander, until Thatch reverted back to his silly self again. "Did you hit your head? Because you've just said something overly sentimental just now."

"Can't I be serious some times?"

"You're only serious on the times when you pissed Marco too much."

"For your information, Marco hits like a bitch." Thatch commented in matter-of-fact tone and expression, while Ace inwardly agreed to that wholeheartedly.

Marco has the patience of a saint— because being the 'first mate' of such large and infamous crew like them, he needed all the capacity to tolerate them, most especially a certain prankster who shall be remained nameless *coughTHATCHcough*—, but once you annoyed the first division commander (which always happened with Thatch and silly pranks) hell will break loose and you will have an angry Phoenix hot on your trail.

"And no, it's just that, I heard from Makino-san a lot of things about Luffy-chan after you two left this afternoon. She's like a sister to Makino-san, and it was too obvious that it was hurting her to see the young lass like that." He added, his eyes glimmering with fondness the way he talk about the bandana-wearing bar owner.

When Ace finally put two and two together after staring at him. "Thatch..." the young commander's voice trailed off, as if trying to weigh down his next words. "Do you... like Makino-san?" He asked carefully.

Thatch blinked owlishly before his cheeks bloomed with bright pink blush. Then the cook let out an awkward laugh. "...— Hahaha! Maybe. Maybe not. Kiss and tell, Acey." He said, giving the second division commander a flirtatious wink and a flying kiss.

Ace scrunched his face. "Gross. Get away away from me."

Thatch obviously did the opposite. He jokingly wrapped his arms around Ace's neck and hang himself to him like a monkey. "But you love, big brother Thatch!" He sang while allowing Ace to dragged him inside the ship.

"Get off, Thatch!" Ace yelled, he was annoyed by Thatch's weight on him, but he was grinning the whole time.

 **OnePieCe**

The following day, Dadan seemed to have undergone a nice change of attitude overnight when Ace appeared on their doorstep. Luffy's foster mother was obviously trying to be as nice as possible to him and allowed him to enter the house while waiting for Luffy. Maybe they had a heart to heart conversation last night or something, because Dadan was less protective of Luffy and just quietly allowed the young lady to leave the house, but not after giving out the strict curfew for Luffy.

"She obvious prefer your company more than staying at home. But she still needs to be home by six, go it?! And no monkey business!" Was the embarrass pep talk of Dadan before ushering the two toward the doorway. Luffy beamed fondly at Dadan before following Ace's instruction once again.

Since the the festival is just a day away, the whole town was bustling with busy villagers preparing the whole place to celebrate the start of summer season. And because he didn't want Luffy getting into any accident, Ace decided to bring the young lady into the nearest playground where he helped Luffy get settled on one of the swings.

There were only few children in the park since even the little ones were trying to help set the town into the festival mood, like offering to set decorations and flowers everywhere, the gestures were appreciated by the adults no matter how clumsy the decorations were.

Ace was leaning onto the railing of the swing, when he remembered Thatch's advice. "Heard your town's having a festival tomorrow?"

Luffy tilted her head to her side before her face brightened in excitement after remembering the impending celebration. "Oh, yeah. The summer festival. We'll be having a festival at Town's square before officially announcing the start of summer season. You should go, Ace. It'll be fun. There will be game stalls, foods, and the best of it was the fireworks display as the finale!"

"Do you want to go? With me, I mean." He didn't want to sound hopeful, but he _is_ kind of hoping that she would accept his invitation. The date of their departure from East Blue back to Paradise is just around the corner, and he would much like to create as many memories as possible with Luffy. He wanted to spend more time with her.

"Huh?" She halted the swing using her legs and tilted her face towards his voice.

Ace quickly straightened himself, waving his hands in front of him in embarrassment, mistaking her surprised reaction as a rejection to his invitation. "Uhm, you don't have to if you don't want—,"

Almost immediately, a bright smile glowed on her lips. She clasped her hands together. "I would love to go! It's been years since the last time I take part in the festival! I'm excited!" She exclaimed, thrilled about the idea of experiencing the festival after so many years, and with Ace, too!

Relief washed over his whole body, he weakly laugh at Luffy's pumped expression. "Haha glad that you're excited. I'll pick you up tomorrow by six o'clock, that okay to you?"

"Yes!" Luffy answered, elated. "Oh, thank you, Ace, thank you so much!"

A warm smile appeared on Ace's lips. "You're welcome." He's glad that he took Thatch's suggestion and ask the young lady out, or he wouldn't be able to witness yet another fascinating expression on Luffy's face.

Ace reminded himself to buy Thatch a nice souvenir for his advice.

 **To be continued**

 _I'm on the roll, people hehe._

 _I apologised for Ace's OOC-mess here. Please understand the Ace doesn't know he's attracted to Luffy and it is his first time to experience this._

 _And I forgot to add that Luffy did call Ace's father as 'Gold Roger' instead of Gol D. Roger, since only selected people (the old ones or the people close to Roger) knew the Pirate King's real name._

 _Ah, festival. I'm going to need more time to think about the scene for the festival. I've got few ideas, but none of it were fitting for Ace and Luffy, and most of it are too damn cheesy._

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	8. Otto

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Otto**

Six in the evening, Ace was nervously standing in front of door of Luffy's house. One fist was hesitantly hovering on the surface of the door, he was about to knock when he pulled his hand away.

He straightened his back and begun to pace back and forth to try and jiggled the anxiety off his system. Ace has been nervous (and excited) since this morning and it did not help that Thatch was all over him, teasing him the whole time.

' _Come on, little bro, relax a little bit!' Thatch jived when he noticed antsy Ace, as they all gathered in the large dining hall._

' _Ugh, don't talk to me, Thatch. You're not helping," listlessly, Ace buried his face against the surface of the dinning table exclusively for the commanders of their crew._

 _He doesn't even know why he's nervous in the first place! Sure, the thought of going to a festival with Luffy was a good thing, an exciting one, but Thatch has been plaguing his mind with 'romantic' scenes that could happened between him and Luffy._

 _The head cook was dead set of his conclusion that he's taking out Luffy into an evening date._ The _date. He was supplying Ace's imaginations with 'holding hand while walking' scene aka HHWW or even worse, an 'accidental kiss' scene, where they were eating food and sharing a drink with one straw._

 _The whole time Thatch was listing down the possible scenarios, Ace's cheeks were already glowing with bright red hue. The other commanders and Whitebeard were all listening to Thatch while watching Ace's embarrassed reaction in great amusement._

" _I know Thatch is an idiot, but I trust me that I will castrate you if you will act like a hormonal teen age." Izou warned the young man._

 _Ace paled. He knew that Izou_ will _castrate him if he were to act inappropriately._

' _Come on, Izou, like Ace will even dare think of touching Luffy-chan.' Haruta defended the young man. Ace was too obvious of how he handled the young lady, like Luffy's the most fragile thing in the whole world._

' _Can you blame me? He's spending way too much with Thatch that he probably catch his stupidity.'_

 _Thatch pouted at Izou. 'That is so mean!' Was the childish response of the head cook, only to be refuted by the elegant swordsman with a delicate roll of eyes and completely ignored him while fanning himself._

 _Everyone laughed, including Ace._

 _Thatch chuckled, amused to see that the young commander is jittery. This isn't the first time of Ace going out of 'date' with some girl. But for Ace, Luffy isn't just some random girl. She's special to the second division commander to say the least, and they were not blind to see that. The short span of spending together, Whitebeard and the others could see that Ace and Luffy's budding relationship extended far more than friendship._

 _Ace has been attentive to her needs, protective of her feelings. Luffy, according to Makino, was as active as she was before loosing her eye sight whenever she's with Ace, she was also smiling brighter than the ones she's showing from the past three years when she's around Ace._

 _Although, the two involving the 'blossoming' relationship were oblivious with that knowledge._

 _Ahh~~~ to be young and in love._

OnePieCe

At first, Ace was not paying too much attention to his 'relationship' with Luffy, he was contended with just spending most of his time with the young lady. But when Thatch started 'putting a label' on their relationship, that's when Ace started feeling conscious with his interaction with Luffy. Was he really that attentive of her? Or protective of her? _Was he really 'falling' for Luffy?_

His head started spinning the more he tried to remember if his actions and gestures to the young lady were indeed 'too affectionate' for them to say that he's falling for the young lady. ' _Ugh, thinking really causes headache.'_ He thought to himself when he felt the throbbing pain on his head.

"Whatever, I'll think about this later." He said to his self, before he finally knocked on the door. He pushed aside his inner conflict, tonight he will forget about everything and will try to make this festival experience as exciting as possible all for Luffy's sake.

The door opened and it revealed a smiling Makino.

"Good evening, Ace-kun! Come on in!" She greeted warmly.

Ace nodded, "Hi. Is she ready?"

The smile on Makino's lips etched wider as she ushered the young man inside. "Oh yes, Dadan is just making a few adjustment on her dress and she's good to go."

Dress? Ace was about to inquire about it when Dadan exited the door that led to the living room. She was escorting Luffy who, to Ace's surprise, was wearing a light blue yukata with petals of cherry blossoms scattered on the lower part of the skirt. The young lady's jet black hair was pulled in high bun with few strands of hair stylishly dangling from it. Luffy was carrying a small sling bag and she's also wearing a traditional wooden sandals.

Without noticing that he just dropped his lower jaw, Ace openly gawked at Luffy, studying the change of the young lady. Luffy is a pretty lady, Ace admitted that fact since the first time meeting the young lady, but seeing her dressed up like this, Ace was caught off guard.

Luffy is _stunning_. For Ace's opinion, that is. She might not be as beautiful as a common model, but Luffy is still stunningly beautiful, especially with this yukata.

He liked the way her unseeing eyes timidly looking down the floor and the red blush blossoming on her cheeks, Ace wasn't sure if it is because of the make up or because she's embarrassed by the attention she's receiving. Her light make up accentuated her round face and her lips were painted with pink lipstick.

His wide eyes were still transfixed at Luffy that he didn't notice that she's already right in front of him.

"Ace...?" Her soft voice brought him back to reality with a bang.

He was embarrassed that he was caught gawking at her red handed, and when he realised that she's was already speaking to him, to his horror, his tongue seemed to have tied itself into knots. "Oh, uh sorry... I just... you're in yukata and uhm..." he stuttered.

Luffy pulled her lips upside down. "Does it look weird on me?" She asked carefully, clearly saddened when she mistook his stuttering into disappointment with her chosen clothes.

Realising that she thought he doesn't like her clothes, Ace quickly answered, "What? No! You look beautiful, actually!" He was not thinking about what to say so he blurted out his real feeling.

"Eh?" Luffy blinked her owlish eyes before her cheeks burned thousand folds. "T-thank you..." she mumbled, abashed about Ace's sudden confession.

The young pirate wanted to slap himself. ' _Smooth move, Ace.'_ He thought to himself. Sure, what he said was the truth, but maybe he could compliment the young lady in a very suave move next time. If there is a 'next time'. "Y-you're welcome... anyways, are you ready?"

"Y-yes... Uhm, Makino, Dadan, we're leaving!"

Finally remembering the two older ladies who were patiently (in Dadan's case, she was pouting) standing behind Luffy, Ace straightened his back and bowed politely. Makino was smiling the whole time she was watching the interaction between Ace and Luffy. She thought that their attraction to each other were sweet and cute. Dadan, however, was trying to be as civil as possible.

"Be safe and enjoy the festival." Makino chirped, wrapping Luffy into a quick hug.

Dadan crossed her arms in front of her chest, and gave Ace a glare. "She needs to be home by 11." She said with an unimpressed expression. "And no monkey business—,"

"Dadan!" a flustered Luffy squeaked, cutting her foster mother's embarrassing 'pep talk' again.

Fully understanding Dadan's way of showing her awkward affection and concern for Luffy, Ace only nodded his head. "No problem, Ma'am. I'll bring Luffy back by 11. Sharp. Pirate's honor." He answered with sincere serious expression.

Makino beamed softly. "I trust Ace is gentleman enough to escort Luffy back before the curfew, and I'm sure he's not going to anything to her." She's confident with Luffy's safety under Ace's protection.

Dadan snorted. "Whatever. Get going or you'll run out of time." She grumbled her reply, ushering Luffy gently towards the door way. "Be safe, okay?"

"Thanks! Bye!" Luffy chimed her good bye, and followed Ace's familiar instructions.

Ace and Luffy were chattering, completely engrossed to each other's attention. Makino and Dadan watched the two, with Dadan feeling conflicted while her gaze was transfixed to Luffy's disappearing back.

An uneasy feelings bubbling in her chest, not because she thought Luffy is not safe under Ace's protection. If there is one thing she learned about the brat, it was that he's dead serious of keeping her foster daughter (yes, she claimed her as her daughter, to her self only though) safe. So no, she's not worried about Luffy safety. It is just that seeing her off to spend sometime with someone from opposite sex, _that_ does not sit well on her.

"I can't believe I'm already at the stage where I'll be seeing Luffy off to her first date. Isn't this too early?" She gloomily said while tottering back inside the house. Her shoulders were hunched forward.

Makino giggled quietly. "I don't think we should considered this as a date, though. More like two friends going to a festival to have a good time." She consoled. Dadan may not be open of admitting her maternal feelings toward Luffy, she's glad that somehow she's finally admitting it secretly or just in front of her.

"A friendly date then, but still a _date_. Ugh, I'm so not ready for this." The older lady threw herself into the sofa.

"You're such a mother hen when it comes to Luffy-chan, and yet you keep denying that." Makino teased.

Dadan flushed in embarrassment but snorted at the same time. "Course! I've been taking care of that brat since she was in diaper, she's as good as a daughter to me!"

"I'm sure she'd be happy if you're to say that to her personally."

"Hah! And not hear the end of her teasing, like what you are doing right now? No, thanks."

"Oh, Dadan-san." Makino said in exasperated fondness.

Dadan sighed in defeat, she pushed herself from the sofa and sluggishly waltzed towards the kitchen. "Anyways, I'm going to look for things to busy myself. I feel like if I'm not doing things to distract myself, I'd follow Luffy and that brat in the end. I don't want Luffy to think I don't trust her."

Makino nodded her head as agreement. "That's a good idea. Why don't we have a girl talk, then?"

"No girl talk!" Dadan exclaimed from the kitchen.

"Tehee~~!" The young bar owner occupied one of the stools from the kitchen island.

Dadan was making a green tea for the two of them when she remembered what Makino told her from the last time. "Did you give your response to that Thatch dude?" She asked curiously.

Makino's smile faltered, she gently shook her head. "Not yet, but I will after the festival tonight..." her melancholic voice trailed off before she continue. "Although I'm thankful for his feelings, I just don't feel the same way like that to him, and you know I already like someone already." The face of a certain red hair pirate captain with wide boyish smile popped at the back of her mind. Her melancholic smile automatically changed into a fond one that did not go past unnoticed by Dadan.

She rolled her eyes, she will never understand any girl falling helplessly in love with that goofy pirate. "Hmp, don't know what you see in that drunkard but whatever, be sure to clear with Thatch."

"Of course." Makino answered, she is planning of giving Thatch's an honest answer, something that he undoubtedly deserves.

 **To be continued**

 _Dadan, you tsundere, you! Hahaha :)_

 _I'm sorry that I have to cut the story to this. I'm still trying to come up with scenes for the festival. And I feel like I should update albeit as short as this._

 _Aaaaanways! Thank you for the reviews! Be at ease that I'm reading them, I just don't really answer them. I'm really happy to receive such compliments and constructive criticism._

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	9. Nono

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Nono**

When they've finally arrived at the town's square, Luffy was greeted by familiar sense of festivity. Nostalgia hit her while she was savouring herself with the cheerful atmosphere. It's only now she realised how she missed this kind of festivity.

Ace and Luffy walked towards and around the town's square holding hands. The young man was the one doing it automatically since they left Luffy's house, and she doesn't know if he's doing it purposely or unconsciously. To be honest, she was inwardly very conscious and flustered about the warmth of Ace's palm emitting to her.

But as soon as she started enjoying herself with the busy yet cheerful atmosphere of the festival, she has forgotten about Ace's hand over hers, she clutched into it while Ace toured her around the plaza. He explained the different stalls they passed by, and Luffy was very grateful to Ace.

To her gladness, most of the villagers recognised and greeted her as they walked around.

"Looking good, Luffy-chan!"

"Oh dear, please have some of takoyaki!"

"Or apple candy!"

"Aww, our little Lu is out on date. Wonder how will Garp-san react to this."

"He'll go rampage!"

"Be a good escort to her, young man. If anything happens to her, you'll be answering to all of us."

"Yes, sir." Was the sincere answer of Ace.

Luffy's cheeks flushed thousand folds. "E-everyone... that's embarrassing."

But she was only answered by an amuse laughed from the villagers. Luffy pouted childishly as Ace smirked as they said their goodbyes to the townsfolk.

In one corner of the towns square, the Whitebeard Pirates created their own little space. The large figure of Whitebeard, himself, were at the center of that space with his commanders and children surrounding him.

Ace spotted his family, and he excitedly dragged Luffy to them. Thatch was the first to noticed Ace and Luffy coming over. He was talking to Izou when he stopped and gave the second division commander a teasing grin. Izou furrowed his delicate eyebrows, but then he sighed in exasperation when he, too, recognised Luffy and Ace.

Thatch latched to Izou and pretend to be crying, earning the attention of their family. "Izou! Our baby brother! Our baby brother is already man enough to escort a beautiful lady!"

"You're making a nuisance of yourself, Thatch." Izou answered, rolling his eyes in fond irritation. "Hello, Luffy-chan." Then greeted the young lady.

Luffy timidly beamed to where she heard Izou's voice. "Hello, Izou, Hello everyone."

The pirates chorused their greeting to the young lady, while the captain lifted his cup of alcohol to Luffy, and guffawed his distinct laugh. "Gurararara! It's a pleasure to see you once again, Luffy." He said while smiling at her with his eyes brimming with fondness.

After greeting the young lady, Thatch continued his teasing. Wrapping on arm around Ace's shoulder. "Our ickle-Acey is growing up..."

"Say one more word and I'm going to burn all of your hair wax." Ace growled, although his cheeks were glowing in deep red hue.

"Oh! There's the Ace we know and love!" Thatch's jived once more, ruffling the young commander's head affectionately.

Luffy chuckled quietly, seeing how Ace's bonded with his comrade (to the point that he considered them as his family) gladness and warmth overflowed in her chest. She's immensely relieved that despite his harsh upbringing, there is a ship full of people who care and love Ace unconditionally.

"At least try to act like a decent older brother, just this time." Ace sighed in defeat.

"Where's the fun in that, Acey?" Thatch retorted back. "Right, Marc?"

Marco, who kept himself busy with his own food, groaned. "Don't dragged me into your craziness, Thatch." But the fourth commander only jived more, to the first and second commander's exasperation.

Whitey Bay, a beautiful pirate with wavy ice blue hair, patted Luffy by her head. "Little lady, I trust Ace with my life, but if ever he does try something to you, grabbed him by his shoulders and go straight to the groin, okay?" The head doctor of the Whitebeard Pirate winked teasingly at Ace, which earned a flushed expression. Thatch, on the other hand, was laughing uncontrollably.

"Bay! What the hell?!" Ace sputtered, he then tried to punch Thatch for laughing, but he missed because the older pirate (who was busy laughing) dodges his fist.

Bay clicked her tongue. "I said 'if', Acey. What, are you really planning to do something naughty, Acey boy?"

Izou gasped dramatically, taking in Bay's words seriously. "How dare you!" He snapped, and started hitting Ace's head using his wooden fan.

"Of course not— Izou stop hitting me with your fan!" Ace complained, good thing he spotted Thatch so he grabbed his brother by his collar (which earned a startled yelp from Thatch) and positioned the poor fourth commander in front of him.

Ace was shamelessly using his older brother as his shield, much to the older pirate's chagrin, to the audiences' amusement.

"Izou! Don't use your haki on me!" Thatch screamed in pain as he tried to dodged the haki-infused fan, but Ace was keeping him in place so he received Izou's hitting all to himself.

"Ace is naughty! Ace is naughty!" Haruta started chanting, followed the other pirates.

"Shut up, Haruta!" Was the angry response of Ace while trying to hide behind Thatch.

Whitebeard laughed loudly, enjoying the closeness of his children.

"But seriously, has anyone done the... you know... ' _The Talk'_ to Ace?" Blamenco asked to no one in particular and in a very careful manner, as if he was asking a sensitive topic.

"What talk?" Jozou inquired seeing that he's just next to his brother, blinking his eyes to the sixth division commander. Ace looked at his older brother once he secured his safety from Izou's clutches. He went over to Blamenco and Jozou, also curious about the 'talk' he mentioned.

Luffy tilted her head and lifted her brows, confused and curious about this 'the talk' Blamenco spoke about.

"You know!" Blamenco insisted, there was a color red hue bloomed on the round man's cheeks. " _The_ talk." Emphasising the word with an air quote.

"What?" Ace impatiently inquired. The hell is Blamenco so flustered about?

"..." Blamenco hunched over to Ace and Jozuo's ears and whispered something to his brothers.

Once hearing Blamenco, both brothers blushed furiously and gazed at Blamenco rather scandalously.

"The fuck, Blamenco!" Ace raved, embarrassed, while it left Jozou speechless.

Whitebeard was sitting close to his third and sixth, so he was able to hear Blamenco's words to his brothers, and he couldn't helped but to laugh about it. He, also, couldn't help but to tease his youngest commander. "Gurararara! Ace, we'll have to start discussing 'the talk'—"

"Not you, too, Oyaji?!" Ace interrupted, squeaking his voice in process. His eyes were going back and forth to Luffy, flustered.

"What's the talk?" Luffy asked, curious about the topic.

Thatch, seeing the opportunity to tease Ace more, appeared next to the young lady. "Oh, Luffy, it's—,"

"NOTHING!" Ace bellowed cutting Thatch off, to everyone's surprised the second division commander dove right into Thatch and both commanders' rolled over due to impact few meters away from the group.

Leaving the others laughing in amusement and Luffy blinking in curiosity.

 **OnePieCe**

Ace was still blushing and grumbling under his breath five minutes after they left his family— who was still laughing out loud while he pulled Luffy away from them. Luffy was smiling amusedly, albeit being a little bit flustered, when Bay whispered to her the meaning behind 'the talk' they mentioned earlier.

"They could have at least tone down the teasing." Ace shook his head, in fond irritation.

"It only means that they care about you. And to be honest, I'm quite envious of how you are close to your family." Luffy said, her expression was sincere and with no malice.

Ace's anger melted, pulling the young girl closer to him through their joined hand. "I'll be your family." He mumbled shyly.

Luffy's wide brown eyes softened, and was about to response to Ace but they were suddenly interrupted by loud voice.

"Oh! It's getting hot in here!"

Luffy and Ace jumped away from each other when a sudden loud voice boomed behind them. Ace turned around, armed with reddened cheeks, about to reprimand the person behind them. But he was greeted by a muscular man wearing a karate uniform, who was grinning ear to ear at the young pirate.

"Uhm, who are you?" Ace asked, curious and suspicious at the same time.

"Hello, young couple! Would you like to experience my game?" He asked, raising his voice even more, oblivious to Ace's bewildered expression.

Luffy, who Ace pulled behind him in case this man is a pervert or something, finally recognised the boisterous voice. "Takeshi-sensei?" She inquired.

"Ah!" The man Luffy called as Takeshi-sensei exclaimed in surprise when he spotted Luffy behind Ace. "Oh man! Lu! It's good to see you!" He went passed Ace, and to the latter's shock, the older buffed man nonchalantly hugged the young lady.

He doesn't know why he's irritated that this unknown man was touching and hugging Luffy with such familiar gesture, as if they were long lost best friend or something. Ace was about to reprimand the older man when to his shock, again, Luffy hugged the man back. Beaming widely as she wrapped her arms around the man's torso.

"Sensei! It's been so long! How's your karate dojo?"

"Good, good. The newbies were not as challenging as you were before, mind you!"

 _Huh?_ Ace watched the two, dumbfounded.

When the two finally remembered Ace's existence, Takeshi wrapped his arms around Luffy, but the gesture did not suit Ace too well. Luffy was innocently smiling, unaware of the challenging glare the men giving to each other.

"Didn't know that you have a boyfriend, _Lu_." The way he called Luffy's nickname was too informal and too affectionate to Ace's taste, which irritated the young man more.

Luffy, on the other hand, blushed. "He's not my boyfriend. He's a... special friend."

Ace gave Takeshi a smug smirk. ' _Hear that? I'm her 'special' friend. So get your filthy arms away from her already!'_

Takeshi only lifted an eyebrow. "Eh... wonder how will your grandfather react if he is to learn that you have 'special' friend as a pirate."

Shit. That was a rather hard slap to Ace. Sure, Luffy doesn't mind him being a pirate, but what if her grandfather— who is none other than the famous 'Garp the Fist, Hero of the Marine', a person responsible of cornering Ace's father the late King of Pirates multiple times— indeed were to learn their 'special' friendship, he'd go ballistic. He'd, most probably, tracked Ace down and give him his famous 'fist of love', or worse, he'll throw him in to Impel Down! Ace paled with that thought.

"Grandpa doesn't have anything to say to the people I want to be friends with." Luffy stubbornly answered.

"Hahaha! Like the times when you befriended Shanks? We thought he would explode!" He said, remembering the past when Garp was yelling to Luffy as soon as he found out that his granddaughter was 'friends' with a wanted pirate, even worse with Shanks, one of the yonkou. "Anyways! Let's go to my game stall! It's been awhile since you demonstrated your strength, _Lu_! Let's see if you're still our little champion." He said loudly while pulling the girl by her shoulder to god's know where, with an angry Ace following close behind.

' _Strength?'_ It is a good thing that he's learning more about Luffy, but not a good one to learn it from this stranger. Ace was fuming quietly, glaring daggers at the arm around the embarrassed Luffy.

"Sensei, it's been years since the last time I practiced karate. I'm pretty sure I'm kind of 'rusty'." She was stumbling a bit, when her karate teacher practically dragged her away.

"I'll be the one to judge that." He insisted, not allowing the young lady to say more of her complains.

Luffy only sighed in defeat, finally allowed Takeshi to pull her to his stall.

 **OnePieCe**

At Takeshi's stall, there was a punching machine waiting for them. Ace noticed that only few was playing the said game. And to his horror, those few people were Thatch, Rakuyo, Blenheim and Haruta.

"Ah, Acey!" Thatch called out rather loudly and waved his arms to Ace, much to the young man's embarrassment. "And Luffy-chan, too!"

"Hello, everyone." Luffy greeted after hearing Thatch's familiar voice.

"You know these gentlemen?" Takeshi asked.

"They are Ace's family." Luffy simply explained. Ace quickly stood next to Luffy when he finally released the young lady from his arm, he's eyeing the Takeshi guy with disdain, throwing glares that warned him not to touch Luffy again.

Sensing Ace's aggravation to his closeness to his former karate star pupil, Takeshi fanned this irritation more when he gave Ace a challenging smile. "Well, seems like you're indeed 'special' to _Lu_. As Garp's previous marine student, and _Lu's_ former karate teacher, I'm challenging you with this baby." Takeshi patted the punching machine.

Ace smirked back. "You're on." He said while cracking his knuckles. It's time for this guy to learn his boundaries when it comes to Luffy.

Sensing nothing malice from Takeshi's challenging gestures at Ace, Thatch and the others quietly stand on the sideline and let Ace face the buffed man by himself. If he need help, they are just one look away from giving their second Commander their aide. Not that they are all worried about Ace's fighting abilities, he is their second division commander after all, and in Whitebeard's history, he is also the youngest to rose up to that position. They all knew that Ace is a force to be reckoned with.

Apparently, this Takeshi guy wanted to test Ace, if he's worth being friends with Luffy or not.

Luffy started to panic. She could feel the palpable tension between Ace and her karate teacher. "Uhm..." she wanted to stop Takeshi and Ace, but her anxiety fell into deaf ears. How come the situation has come into this?

 **OnePieCe**

The challenge was to get the highest score in three tries. It was not helping when Thatch and the other commanders in tow started cheering for Ace. Takeshi's three pupils, who were helping his game stall, cheered for their sensei.

Luffy stood quietly on the side, peeved that they were ignoring her.

They do a lottery to know who's going first. Takeshi won the lottery— to Ace's irritation— and went to punch the machine after his warm up. He scored 195 points.

Ace was next and scored 201. He grinned pompously at Takeshi, but the karate teacher was not deterred by the difference of their score. Takeshi took his second punch and scored 325, which surprised Ace and his brothers. The three students cheered loudly, and Takeshi laughed boisterously.

Ace was annoyed when he scored the same as Takeshi for his second try. He was aiming for a better score than that, maybe next time he should imagine Takeshi's face on the punching bag to motivate him more.

Takeshi was about to take his third punch when Luffy interrupted them.

"Uhm! Please let me try!" She cried.

The Whitebeard commanders and the three students stared at Luffy with dumbfounded expression. Takeshi, however, was not as surprise as the others.

"But, Luffy—," Ace reluctantly started.

"It's good that you two are enjoying this rivalry, but it is a shameful act to ignore a lady because to that, don't you think?" Bay, who suddenly appeared behind the startled blind lady, said.

She pushed Luffy in front of the punching machine, and helped the young lady acquaint herself with her distance and position to the machine. "Okay, Luffy? Punch the machine as strong as you can, 'kay?"

Luffy nodded, rotating her left arm as warm up. "Okay..."

"Go, Luffy!" Thatch cheered.

"Be careful." Ace mumbled, sure Luffy can use Observation Haki, and that makes her special. Sure, this Takeshi guy kept calling Luffy as his 'star pupil' which obviously meant that Luffy used to practice karate and seemed to be very good at it. But she's been locked up in her house for three years, which also mean that it's been so long since the last time she's active in karate. He's worried that Luffy would accidentally hurt herself.

"You ready, Luffy-chan?" Bay asked her.

"I think so." Luffy answered her unseeing eyes glowing in pure determination that left Ace mesmerised by it.

Luffy inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. She positioned herself, tightly folded palm raised upward and one foot behind her to provide her with enough support for the impact.

Everything went so quickly that even with Ace's keen eyes were not able to follow Luffy's next move. They were all startled when the machine rang and showed her score. 521 point. Freaking five hundred twenty one points for her first try! They all paled, clearly, she's also a force to be reckoned with.

"Would you look at that. So, gentlemen, I think we know who's the winner, right?" Bay cheerfully said, after their short, stunned, silence. "Congratulation Luffy!" They older woman even held Luffy's one hand upward, the young lady was only beaming.

"As expected of my star pupil!" Takeshi bellowed followed by his loud guffaw. Everyone who witnessed Luffy's strength, clapped their hands and cheered as well.

Ace, still having an after shock, let out a weak laugh and shook his head. He wondered how many more times will Luffy surprise him?

 **To be continued**

 _Who said Luffy is a damsel in distress? lol more surprise coming!_

 _Uhm, to explain Luffy's strength here, before loosing her eyes sight, Garp has been forcing Luffy into his 'marine training', but a little lenient compare to the canon version. She surprisingly enjoyed karate out of all the training regimen Garp forced her to do so karate is the one she really persevered to do. She was also excelling in karate, so much that she went up to blue belt rank when she's 12 years old. But her doctor warned her that doing karate (head can be hit accidentally during training or in between competitions) will only severe the case of her gradually deteriorating eye sight. So she was force to stop her training._

 _Aaaaand I'm going to leave it like that. Again. Sorry!_

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	10. Decimo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Decimo**

The disbelief of Luffy winning the competition— that first only involved Takeshi and Ace— lasted for few minutes until everyone roared their cheers for the young lady.

"Hurray for Luffy-chan!"

"Hurray!"

"Shishishi! Thank you everyone!" Luffy answered, bashfully.

"Now I'm not worried that Luffy would be defenceless around Ace." Bay jived, earning an embarrassed glare from the second division commander.

"Not funny, Bay," was the grumpy response of Ace. Bay only chuckled before she pinched Ace on his cheek, affectionately.

"I see why you're attracted to little Luffy there." Bay whispered to Ace.

Ace blushed furiously at the word 'attracted'. M-maybe he should be accustomed with that word because he's really a-a-attracted to Luffy. _'Ugh, that's so embarrassing! I feel like I'm a teenage boy having his first crush!'_ Ace rubbed his face with his two palm to cover up his blushing cheeks.

His grey eyes fell on Luffy (who is now surrounded by Thatch and the other commanders) she's laughing heartily as her cheeks tainted with light pink blush. Her unseeing eyes were glowing and her lips were drawn into a large grin while she bashfully waved off his brothers' compliment to her.

Softly, his own lips formed a fond smile. Yeah, he's head over heels with Luffy.

 **OnePieCe**

Ace was scowling.

Luffy was nervously smiling.

Thatch and Haruta were both beaming widely.

The four of them were sitting inside the ramen shop.

"Thank you for the foods~!" Thatch and Haruta sang together, clasping their palm after they consumed five bowls, each, of ramen. "We're so full~~!" They said, patting their protruding stomach.

The young pirate was trying to keep his anger under control (but he's somehow failing miserably) for Luffy's sake. He was, at first, intending to buy himself and Luffy foods after they've left the booth awhile ago. But these two pooped out of nowhere as soon as Ace and Luffy settled in one of the tables of the said shop.

"Good, because you two emptied my wallet!" Ace growled as he put his now-thin wallet back to his pocket.

Haruta looked at Ace, offended, "We paid, though." Thatch sagely nodded in agreement.

"FOR THE TIP!" Ace snarled once again.

Thatch and Haruto only laughed, "Well pay for that later."

Ace rolled his eyes, he rested his elbow on the table and dropped his cheek on his palm. "I won't hold my breath on that." He grumbled, not wishing for Luffy to witness this scene with his annoying set of brothers, but Ace guess that being part of Whitebeard family also means enduring the craziness of his brothers.

Ace loves his family dearly, (and he's glad that Luffy was taking his brothers' interruption lightheartedly) but tonight he just want to break away from them and spend more time alone with the young lady.

 _'At this rate, we'll never get the chance to be alone.'_ Ace inwardly sighed.

As if sensing his inner conflict, Thatch leaned forward to Ace and whispered, "There's going to be a firework display in an hour. Makino told me the best spot to watch it." The older pirate winked at Ace.

"As compensation for buying us ramen, we'll make sure people will stir clear of that place." Haruta pinched in, mimicking Thatch's wink which cause for Ace to crumple his nose in disgust.

But he's grateful for them this time. They are probably compensating for disturbing his date.

"What are you guys whispering to each other?" Luffy inquired curiously.

"Nothing—,"

"Ace was telling us how he loves spending time with you," was Thatch's respond and then Haruta started chuckling.

Instantly, Luffy's face flushed, and she began sputtering. "U-uhmm... I... I also, erhm...!"

Ace wasn't any better, his face reddened hundred folds while he turned to glare at Thatch and Haruta. Scratch what he said earlier. Thatch and Haruta do live to embarrass him, like a real older brother teasing their youngest sibling. _'When I go back to Moby Dick, I'm going to punch the living daylights out of them,'_ he noted to himself. His shoulders were animatedly twitching in restrained annoyance.

 **OnePieCe**

Ace decided to walk around the square with Luffy once again, just until the time for fireworks display.

However, Thatch and Haruta seemed to made it their mission to annoy him this whole night.

They, shamelessly, tagged along the couple, even Thatch challenging Luffy into different game stalls. Ace found himself watching Luffy while she was concentrating, one hand held a paper scooper while the other was gripping a mini plastic bowl.

In the end, Luffy beat Thatch in the game. She did use her observation haki, but they have not ruled that out, so yeah, Luffy beat Thatch fair and square, much to Ace's amusement and to Thatch's disappointment. Why didn't he use his haki before?! Haruta found everything amusing and was cackling while dodging Thatch's punches.

However, Luffy gave the gold fish to the little girl whom she heard complaining to her big brother that she wanted one, but said older brother attempted many times and failed to succeed.

"Thank you, Onee-chan!" The kids chorused before bowing their head and run back to their parents, the little girl was carefully and happily clutching the bag of her new pet goldfish.

Thatch whistled, highly impressed. "Wow, good looking, strong _and_ kind. You're a total package, Luffy-chan!" He expressed, and then he sent Ace a suggestive grin. "Your future boyfriend is sure lucky to have you."

Ace's eyebrow twitched. "What boyfriend?" The mere thought of someone else's hands touching Luffy, on her soft and delicate skin and her pretty, pretty face, pissed him off. And when his brothers found his emotions amusing, it only fuelled his irritation.

"Gosh, Ace, you fell for Luffy's charm that hard, huh?" Haruta concluded

Ace only grunted. At first, he was only looking at Luffy as a friend, until he realised that he loved her. The friendship between them was a good thing. Despite Luffy's disability somehow they were able to understand each other. With their short span of knowing each other it was easy for him to open up with her, even the darkest secrets he kept to himself for so long, flowed out from his lips, unrestrained.

Ace liked her. He liked her hair, he liked her innocent face, he liked her pretty and unseeing eyes, he liked how she can be a bashful, fragile blind lady at first then suddenly turned into someone who can kick your ass, with or without disability.

The more he spend time with her, though, the harder it was to control his 'desire' for her, but if he's reading Luffy's reaction right, then he's confident that the feeling is mutual. Million belli question is how will he confess his feelings to her?

Ace shrugged his shoulders. He'll cross the bridge when he get there. For now, he just wants to spend more time with Luffy.

 **To be continued**

 _Thank you for_ **Madrigal-in-training** _for suggesting the goldfish part. Hehe, I'm sorry if it is not in par of what you've suggested, but I tried my best to write it :(_

 _I pictured Thatch and Haruta as the members who like to prank the whole Whitebeard Pirates, especially Thatch. And Izou and Marco were the only ones who can restrain the two. Whitebeard is a dotting father figure to them so he allowed the two to tease their ship siblings._

 _I wrote this in the middle of my work which is a major breaking of rule in our hospital lol but I cant help it, we barely have any patients (most of them are for discharge) so I'm kind of bored. Anyways, I apologise if something is wrong with this chapter or a little bit of short update. I'll try to edit the whole chapter and add one more update some other time or on my day off._

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	11. Undicesimo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Undicesimo**

Half an hour before the finale of the summer festival of Fuschia village, it seems like his brothers are not going to leave him in peace despite the promise they made to him awhile ago, so he sneaked away from Thatch and Haruta's clutches, tugging along Luffy with him of course.

Inwardly, though, he knew that they were pretending to allow him to leave in quiet, because he can never sneak away from his brothers— who are both commanders of their own division, mind you— as easy as that without getting caught halfway through. Ace doesn't know if he should be grateful to them or not.

Maybe he should postpone the 'punching the daylights out of them' plan of his some other time.

Ace and Luffy were leisurely walking down the path towards the village's local shrine with their fingers tangled with each other. The road towards the shrine was solemn and a bit of romantic if Ace was being cheesy because they passed by few couples on their way.

He inwardly wondered if they looked anything like that.

A couple.

Ace blushed once again. He thank all the gods in heaven that Luffy can't see his blushing mess.

He wanted to do more that just holding hands with Luffy. He wanted to take her out on a proper date if he really wanted to pursue her. But Ace knew that he's running out of time because in two days they will be leaving the island. He is also a pirate, being stagnant on one island for too long is not uncommon, but Ace is an adventurer. He loves to travel around. He loves being free.

Although he really wanted to pursue Luffy, seeing that she's a civilian and a granddaughter of a high ranking Marine, perhaps their so called relationship might not be... _feasible_.

His heart lurched, seizing painfully whenever he thought about leaving Luffy to continue his life as a pirate. Ace can't even imagine his life other than being a pirate, but he also knew that he couldn't leave things between them the way they are any longer. If he's going to leave, he hoped he could at least give her a reason to look forward of seeing each other again.

"Ace...?" Luffy called out softly, tugging him to get his attention.

Ace was brought back from his reverie. "Sorry, just thinking about something." He mumbled, keeping his hand over hers.

Despite that, Luffy was thankful that Ace held her hand rather delicately. She formed a sympathetic smile, "Are you tired? Do you want to go back home?"

Ace immediately shook his head. "No, don't worry about. Anyways, we're here." He looked around and was grateful that Luffy snapped him from his thought just in front of the destination.

If he dwelled into his reverie for another minute, then they would've passed the shrine by without him noticing it.

Luffy tilted her head to the side. "Where exactly is ' _here'_ , Ace?"

The latter grinned widely. "We're at your village's shrine temple. No one besides us is here. Thatch told me that this is the best spot to watch the fireworks." He said, as he looked up to the towering stairs before them. It'll be too difficult and rather tiring for Luffy to climb this, he thought. So without thinking further Ace lightly pulled the young lady to him, Luffy gasped but was unable to squirm away from Ace when he placed his arms under her knees and her back.

Luffy was too stunned to flail but her face caught on fire, but Ace continued to climbed the stairs as if she weighed nothing. When she finally realised her _erhm_ situation Luffy started to wiggle.

"Ace! W-what are you doing?" Luffy stuttered, too aware that their face was too close to each other for comfort. She could even feel the warm breathing of Ace when he answered.

"To reach the temple we need to climb the stairs, and it's awfully steep and each steps are narrow. It'll be difficult for you to climb it for now." He said, rather casually. He tightened his grip to her thighs and shoulders while Luffy tried to push down the blush consuming her entire petite face.

"Y-you didn't have to carry me like this though." Luffy mumbled in embarrassment. "Uhm, I'm not too heavy, right?" She tried to squirm to make herself lighter, but that is an obvious impossible feat.

Ace snorted, continuing his pace like nothing. "Pssh, please. You don't even weigh a thing. I can even run a marathon while carrying you and I won't feel tired after it."

Luffy doesn't know if she should be glad about that or be offended. She only sighed. "Ace, for future reference, you don't talk about girl's weight or you'll offend your future girlfriend." She grunted.

"What, you're offended? But I'm complimenting you!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! I mean, you're not thin nor fat!"

"Ace!" Luffy cried, embarrassed, as she kicked her legs in mild annoyance.

Ace chuckled. "Haha! Anyways, we're at the top, and we're just in time!" He announced after placing the young lady down the ground carefully.

As if a cue, the first firecrackers lit up the night sky. Ace helped Luffy settled themselves on the step of the stairs. They were sitting close to each other, sharing their body heat to each other. Ace manoeuvred his arms behind him and angled his body to the sky so he could watch the different colours of the fireworks erupting in the sky.

"Wow! So awesome!" He exclaimed, excitedly.

 **OnePieCe**

The moment Ace carried Luffy to the shrine, bridal style no less, two figures hiding behind the post of the street light grinned in amusement.

"Didn't know that Ace had it in him," Thatch mused as he watched Ace climbed the stairs with Luffy in his arms. "Well, I gotta go and meet up with my date. Didn't want Acey outshining good old Thatchy." He joked as he ran his hand against his pompadoured hair.

Haruta chuckled, "Wouldn't expect something good, but good luck. Well have the beers, pillows and handkerchief ready fo you." He teased.

Thatch pouted, "I'm so glad that you're always there to encourage me, Haruta." The fourth commander grunted sarcastically.

Haruta only guffawed, he turned around and waved his hand while walking away. "Good luck with your conquest for love, bro!"

Thatch, with amused expression, sighed in fond exasperation. "Right, I should go now. I don't want Makino-san to wait for me for too long." He said, before he left the spot and made his way to their meeting place.

 **OnePieCe**

Luffy was quietly listening to the firecrackers booming above her. How she wished she can see them. But soon she will be able to see again, she hoped. She remembered her conversation with her grandfather through Den-Den Mushi last night. She hinted to her grandfather about her willingness to take the operation, and for real this time. The old man was glad, although he was curious about the sudden change of her decision, but decided not to pry, for now.

"Ace... I'm reconsidering the chance of the surgery." She decided to say her final decision, because Ace is the major reason why she decided to take up the opetition, after all.

"Really?!" Ace gaped, too glad about the good news.

"Yes, I called my grandfather, and he said he'll take some time off from his job."

"Wow..." Ace was lost for words after hearing the good news, albeit he's a little scared that something might go wrong while doing the operation— the doctor did warn her that the success rate is only 40 percent— still she's might have a chance to see again. "That's good news!" He beamed, he's glad on behalf of Luffy.

Luffy smiled, and Ace caught something from Luffy's face. It was quick and too subtle that Ace was unable to comprehend that emotion.

Luffy longing gazed at the sky she could not see. Bittersweet feelings consumed her chest while listening to the sounds of the fireworks. She could remember watching it for the first time with her grandfather. She was scared at the noise at first that she clung to her grandpa almost immediately, but then she started enjoying the display as soon as she saw the colourful fireworks in the sky.

She remembered watching it with Shank and his crew when her grandpa was too busy to accompany her. Luffy was securely on Shanks' lap as they were both were situated on Red Dragon's figure head. She suddenly missed that red haired pirate and his crew. She lost her eyesight a month after the Akagami Pirates left East Blue to Grand Line.

"I... wish I can see the fireworks, though, it must be spectacular to watch." Luffy murmured almost quietly.

A soft, sad look flashed in her honey coloured eyes that made Ace's chest hurt. The young pirate lifted a hand and tucked Luffy's hair behind her ear, a gesture that was soothing for the young lady. "It is. But if you can't see it, I'll be your eyes for now. I'll watch the fireworks and describe it to you, so it's as if you're watching it with you own eyes, right?" Ace said before he moved to sit behind Luffy and gently lay her back against his sturdy chest for support. Ace was glad Luffy did not freak out over him when he locked her in between his legs, a position rather intimately and so familiarly.

The fireworks fired up in the sky one after another, and Ace patiently described each fireworks to Luffy. The colors. The different shapes. The awesome timing from one firecrackers to the next.

When the fireworks erupted the final round, it reflected against Luffy's tear-stained blind eyes. She bit her lower lip hard, she was glad that Ace could not hear her sniffing. Luffy was overwhelmed with her feelings right now. When the realisation that she has fallen in love with this young pirate has finally struck her, she could no long stop the tears to fall down.

' _Ace... I love you...'_ Luffy wanted to confess her feelings to him. She leaned her back flat against Ace's sturdy chest, trying to keep her trembling body from Ace. Despite the tears, Luffy was smiling and it was soft, but happy. Her eyes were filled with tears, thick and warm and trailing like rain. "Thank you, Ace... thank you so much..." she whispered as her quivering hand gripped Ace's arm.

 **OnePieCe**

It has been hours after the end of the fireworks, but Ace kept Luffy locked in his arms for couple of more minutes. As soon as the young pirate noticed that it's nearing Luffy's curfew, reluctantly they both decided to return back home.

When they finally arrived on the doorstep of Luffy's house, Ace was thankful that Dadan was nowhere to be seen unlike the last time. They still have few more minutes together.

Alone.

Luffy pulled her hand from his grip and turned to face Ace, leaving the young man blinking his eyes in confusion. "Uhm, Ace, can you lean down a little?" She requested, she was clutching her sling bag rather tightly and her cheeks were in bright pink hue.

"Huh? Yeah sure..." Ace answered, unsure by her sudden favor. But he did what she requested, he slowly leaned forward. He was even more confuse when Luffy clumsily cupped his cheeks with her warm palm. But what happened next was beyond surprising for Ace.

Luffy tiptoed and next thing he knew her warm and soft lips pressed against his. Ace's eyes went wide as his heart race faster. But before he could react, Luffy immediately stepped away from him.

"Thank you for the wonderful night, Ace. I really enjoyed it." Luffy whispered, and then she turned around and entered the house, leaving the stunned second division commander outside.

They... kissed. Or more like, she kissed him. But still, THEY KISSED!

Ace was still stunned. His body froze up. He hadn't actually moved a muscle from his awkward, half-bent position. It took the young pirate half a minute to really process what happened. As soon as he did, though, it came at him with full-force. Suddenly, Ace's face was flaming up, even to the tips of his ears. He lifted a hand, and his fingertips grazed his lips in pure disbelief.

That wasn't his first kiss, though. No, but it was enough to make his knees suddenly weak. With a hand covering half of his blushing face, he squatted down, fully aware of his racing heartbeat. He never pegged Luffy to initiate intimate gesture like a kiss, but really, with how Luffy surprised him with hidden abilities for the past few days, he should stop underestimating the young lady.

But hey, he's not complaining, and he knew he wouldn't say no to another kiss like that. And a longer one, hopefully.

 **To be continued**

 _Another update within less than 24 hours after uploading the tenth chapter, wow, congratulation to myself. LOL!_

 _Anyways, FYI, I did edit the previous chapter, I hope you don't mind._

 _Two more chapters until the end, I guess?_

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	12. Dodicesimo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Dodicesimo**

There's been a definite spring in Ace's step once he get a hold of himself after the... kiss— he really need to stop blushing already, but he couldn't stopped the butterflies in his stomach or the giggles to escape his lips. If he's old Ace, he'd call himself 'sappy'.

And once his crew mates noticed the blush and the wide grin decorating the youngest commander's chiselled face, they all gazed at each other, unsure how to react with that.

Ace crossed the plank and went straight to deck where he found the rest of the commanders— minus Thatch and Izou— along with their father and few nurses, who are monitoring the large captain's health *coughAlcoholIntakecough*. The second division commander's grin got wider, "Heya, guys," he greeted his family as he occupied the chair across Whitebeard.

The commanders are all staring at Ace awkwardly. They didn't know how to make it with this. They could all imagine flowers, cupid and hearts floating around the commander.

"Uh, Ace?" Haruta called out. "I don't want to be that person to say this but... you got a real big, cheesy smile on your face."

"Really?" Ace asked, the smile did not falter even just a fraction, however.

Haruta only nodded, unsure how or what to reply.

Ace only shrugged. After saying good night to their father, Ace stood up and made his way towards the wing where the commanders' rooms were situated.

Fossa puffed out tobacco smoke as he leaned to Vista, who was sitting next to him, "You think something good happened to him and that Luffy girl?"

Vista was looking at Ace's back, thoughtfully answered, "You think they kissed?"

Apparently, Ace was near enough to hear Vista's question. To their amusement, the young commander's reaction went like a toppled dominos, his heart jumped, his face flushed to the tips of his ears and then his foot caught the other one causing for him to stumbled forward, face first on the wooden floor.

"Commander Ace, careful!" Everyone who saw that gasped and was quick to help the second division commander.

The commanders, however, eyeing Ace with mixtures of amusement and exasperation.

Vista chuckled, eyes twinkling in bemusement, "I'll take that as a yes, then." He said.

The other commanders nodded in unison.

"Gurararara! I would like to have Luffy on board someday!" Whitebeard announced, and laughed his distinct laugh.

His crew, somehow, nodded in agreement to that statement. They'll be glad to have the lass on board as well. It'll be interesting to watch Ace and Luffy's relationship to bloom.

 **OnePieCe**

Past midnight, Luffy lay on her bed wide awake. There're so many things swirling in her mind, most of it are about Ace and her non-existence relationship with him.

It took her days to realise that she's falling in love with him. What concern her is what kind of path in store for her with this kind of feelings to a free-spirited pirate like Ace as a baggage?

Will he stay here with her? Or maybe ask her to go with him? Is that even plausible knowing that she's blind? She would be an inconvenience on him, for sure.

Will he stop his life as pirate for her?

No, scratch that.

Does she even have an ounce of courage to ask him to stop?

Ace changed her for good, and he did it because he's 'Ace', every bit of him helped renewed her or give her courage to take one step forward. So if she is to take that part of him, it will feel so wrong.

Luffy sighed, frustration eating her whole being.

"Can't sleep?" A calm voice said.

Luffy pushed herself from her pillow and tilted her face to Makino's voice. "No."

Makino gave her wry smile before approaching the bed. She placed a small box she was carrying on Luffy's bedside table. The young bartender then crawled the bed and sat besides Luffy. "What's wrong?" She asked as she guide the young lady to lean their back against the head rest of Luffy's bed.

"I can't decide whether I should tell Ace I love him or not." Luffy mumbled while fumbling her comforter.

Makino was quiet at first, but then after a minute she said, "You know, Thatch confessed to me awhile ago."

Luffy gasped, turning her head to Makino, "Really?!"

Makino smiled a melancholic one, "Yes, but I turned him down. I mean, I'm glad he feels that way, but I couldn't possibly return his feelings because—,"

"You love Shanks..." Luffy finished Makino's sentence when the older lady hesitated to do it herself. Makino is I love with a pirate as well, much like her. Luffy wondered how Makino handled this kind of experience? "Did you ever ask Shanks to stay with you, or go with him?" She asked.

Makino smiled forlornly and then she shook her head softly. "I didn't, or more like, I can't. He loves his life as a pirate, so I couldn't possibly ask him to do that. But I told him, still, about what I really feel about him." She said, and then pulled Luffy in a hug. "I know you feel the same, Luffy-chan, you can't ask him to stop being a pirate, why, once upon a time you wanted to be a pirate, too, remember?" She jived lightly.

Luffy snorted, resting her head on Makino's shoulder, "Yeah, before I lost my eyesight." She mumbled.

Long, long time ago, she also wanted to be a pirate. But loosing her eyesight and the possibility to see once again decreased as years go by, her desire to be a free pirate also decreased. Until she discarded that dream all together.

Makino chuckled and sympathetically patted the young lady on her head. "I know, still I'm not going to force you to say anything, but Ace deserves to know how you really feel. And it'll be a huge relief on your part, as well."

Luffy chewed her lower lip, still reluctant to decide.

Sensing her hesitation, Makino pulled the box she was carrying before and opened it. The box revealed an unusually looking seashell. Makino took the seashell from the box and placed it on top of Luffy's hands.

"What is this?" Luffy asked, she travelled her hand against the smooth, porcelain like skin of the seashell. "A seashell?"

"It's a gift from Shanks." Makino started. "And it's called a tone dial. He said it can record your voice if you pressed this part." She guided Luffy's hand on top of the seashell and pressed the center.

' _Uhhh testing, testing, great it's working. Hi, Makino! Dahahaha! I'm sure you're confused. This is a tone dial, some fancy thing we got from a merchant in Jaya Island, anyways, I uhh... thanks, by the way, you know, for telling me that you love me. I... feel the same way, too, but... but I can't stay with you, for now... Anyways, I'm sorry. But please know that I loved you too. Dahahahaha! That's it! I'll see you again, okay? Take care.'_

Luffy remained still. "That's..."

Makino chuckled fondly, "Yes, it's Shanks. And I want you to use it."

"B-but—!"

Makino firmed closed Luffy's hand over the tone dial. "If you can't say anything to Ace personally, at least use this. With it, you'll be able to tell him about your feelings."

"But this is from Shanks, and this have his voice, too!"

Makino shook her head, beaming at Luffy with solemn one. "I already engraved his voice in my heart, Luffy, as cheesy as it sounds. So, I want you to use it."

Luffy pressed her lips into a thin line before a defeated sigh escaped her lips. "Okay." She whispered, taking the tone dial to her lap.

"Good." Makino beamed widely, "While pressing that button, you can record your voice in it, and once you're done you can give it to Ace or something. Good night, Luffy-chan." With that, Makino left Luffy's room and went back to her own room.

Luffy, while in deep thought, rubbed her thumb against the tone dial's smooth skin. She heaved a deep sigh before she pressed the button. " _Hi Ace, I'm sorry I couldn't even say good bye to you—_ ,"

 **OnePieCe**

"Luffy left?" Ace thought his whole world crumbled beneath him when Makino nodded, confirming the words he was wishing he just misheard or something.

This morning he was so excited to see Luffy again. He was planning of telling her his real feelings for her. He was planning of telling her that if she's willing to wait for his return after his adventure. He was planning of kissing her too and to do more than kissing.

It was the last thing he was expecting to hear from Makino as soon as she opened the door armed with a forlorn smile.

"Yes, her grandfather arrived earlier this morning, and Luffy insisted to leave as soon as possible." She added.

"But... she didn't... I mean, left any message for me or something...?"

"She didn't. I'm sorry, Ace." Makino answered quietly, as if she was also in pain.

Ace swallowed hard, his hands clenched trying to keep his casual facade in place. He laughed listlessly, "Haha... it's cool. Not like I'm expecting anything, but yeah... it's... it's cool..." his voice trailed off, he was feeling at lost, he doesn't know what reaction he should feel.

Hurt?

Betrayal?

Sadness?

His head was swirling with different emotions that it was starting to cause a headache. The young man tightened his fists.

He doesn't understand why would Luffy leave without saying anything. Doesn't she feel anything for him? Was he just reading her reactions too much? But what about kiss last night? Does it not mean something for her?

Ace blinked when he felt his eyes slowly getting warm. Crap! He doesn't want to cry in front of Makino! Actually, he doesn't want to cry at all! "W-Well, we're leaving ourselves, so uhm just tell Luffy 'good bye' for me, okay?" He stuttered.

Makino nodded again. "I'll be sure to relay your message to her. I'm going to miss you and your crew, though." Makino pulled the young man in a quick hug.

After he pulled himself from Makino's arm, he let out a dry chuckle and buried his hands inside his pants side pocket. "Yeah, I'll miss you, too. And uhm, please tell Luffy... I'm going to miss her and... Or... you know what, never mind." Ace, who looks like a lost child, shook his head.

After knowing Luffy, he has already established that the young lady was unpredictable. But he could never predict this kind of pain she would cause him. Maybe this was the reason he didn't start relationships with any lady. Always one night or just flings. Ace had always known it would be messy. In twenty years of his living, Ace he kept his attention on his family and his adventures.

It was easier that way.

Until Luffy came in his life. She made him finally accept his past, without any form of reservations. She made him feel what it means to love your 'significant others'.

But then this happened. It felt like he was stabbed in his chest, multiple times.

"Ace..." Makino called out his name, her one hand lifted to touch him, but he jumped away from her grasp. He thought that if he will let her console him, he would definitely cry.

Ace blinking the tears that was starting to form in his eyes. "Good bye." And then he turn around and walked away.

Makino watched as the young pirate strode his way back to the town, his shoulders were slumped forward.

"Oh, Luffy-chan... if you can only see how much Ace really loves you..." she murmured.

 **To be continued**

 _Luffy! Why you do that to poor Acey?!_

 _Next chapter will the last :(_

 _Though, I'm having an inner debate whether to make an epilogue or not. Because I would love to know how you, readers, create your own conclusion about Luffy and Ace's relationship. Will it set sail full steam ahead or not? Hehehe_

 _As usual, please read and review! Thank you, guys!_

 _See you again :)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	13. Tredicesimo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Tredicesimo**

Ace was still hopeful to see Luffy, even if they only have hours before they leave East Blue. He even stayed near Luffy's house in hope to run into her, but he stayed there fruitlessly for five hours until Dadan, who seemed to have enough of his unwanted presence, chased him away.

In the end, Ace decided to stay in Moby Dick's figure head until their departure, his mind was still thinking what went wrong with him and Luffy.

 _God._

He can't believe he'll come to a point where he will experience heartache and drama that comes with it.

The sky above him has already lit up in light orange and the stars were already drowned by the sunlight some time ago, but Ace remained lying on the large figure head for the whole night, and he's not showing any signs of getting up anytime soon or even tiredness from lack of sleep.

On the other side, Ace was completely unaware of his siblings gathering near as soon as the sun slowly appeared, concern by his quietness and lack of life.

"Someone say something to him!"

"Don't look at me, I ain't made for those kind of talk!"

"How do you even start to talk to a brother who's had his heart broken?"

"What about, Thatch?" Haruta suggested, a finger tapping his chin.

Curiel rolled his eyes to Haruta. "Dude, Izou is still nursing Thatch's hang over in the infirmary." He said.

Thatch has been drowning himself with alcohol when he got back after confessing his feelings with Makino and got rejected. The lady turned him down nicely, and Thatch accepted her rejection with his usual smile, but soon as he arrived the Moby Dick he pulled the rest of the commanders (except Ace) into a drinking session. They really wanted to make fun seeing Thatch crying and everything, but they didn't have the heart to do it. Izou, being the closest to the head chef, only sighed and has long predicted this rejection, helped Thatch be dragged to the infirmary without any of his usual complains.

"And I don't think it's appropriate to let Thatch do the talking since he also got his heart broken by Makino-san." Rakuyu added.

Haruta dropped his head, dejected and embarrassed by his own unthoughtful suggestion. "Yeah, sorry, that's so foolish for me to even suggest." He said, then he face the door which would lead to their ship's infirmary. "I'm sorry Thatch!" He bellowed.

Whitebeard, on the other hand, has been eyeing Ace in concern as soon as he got back from Luffy's house yesterday. He didn't want to blame the young lady from leaving without saying anything, the old man was sure that Luffy has her own reason for doing that, but despite that thought, he still couldn't stop feeling bad for his son's sake. After all, no father would want to witness his own son in pain.

"Son..." he called out, positioning himself near the figure head. He plopped down on the wooden floor with his back resting agains the railing of the ship.

One by one, his children, who gathered near the figurehead, left the area. If someone, aside from Thatch and Marco, can manage to talk out Ace from his sulking, it'll be their father. So leaving Ace on their father's capable hands, they all left and went back to their own activity.

"Oyaji..." Ace murmured, but maintained his position.

"Why the sad face?" He inquired, nudging the young man to speak up.

Silence lingered between the father-son duo, until Ace finally found his voice again. "I... I wanted to see her again, to say my good bye. The way I wanted to convey it to her. But then, I realised, if I were to say my good bye in person, I think... I'd never be able to say it." Feeling that he's drowning with overwhelming emotions, Ace sat up, he bowed his head as if trying to hide his crying face, and clenched his fist into a tight ball. "All I want is to see her again. Just one last time. I can't help but feel that if this continue until we leave this island, it feels like I'm not going to see her again. Ever. And I... damn it, Luffy." Everything poured out from his lips, like a cog that ultimately made a clock finally work again. He doesn't know if it is because he's talking to his father figure— no, his _father_ — or maybe because he bottled up these emotions that it's already taking its toll on him, and when he was given the opportunity to finally release it, he did release all of his pain, his frustration and his inner hope to see her again, unrestrained.

Feeling sympathetic to his son, who is now curled into a ball, Whitebeard reached out his hand over his son's head. "My son, good bye is not necessary if deep inside your heart, you still want to see her. You do want to see her again, right?"

Ace nodded his head, "Of course."

Whitebeard beamed softly at Ace's hunched back. "Distance can't stop what's meant to be. If you are destined to be with Luffy, then you will return to each other again and again."

Ace slowly turned his face to his father and captain, despite his sadness, he couldn't help but to chuckle softly, "That's so cheesy, Oyaji." He jived.

"Gurararara! If you're as old as I am and has to many kids to look after, then you are excuse to say something cheesy to your kids!" Whitebeard chimed in amusement, feeling the self accomplishment of finally seeing the smile on his youngest commander's face, however small it was. "Well, we'll be leaving the island anytime. I'm sure you wanted to see her, but if you can't, maybe you can just leave a message for Luffy to Makino?"

Ace shook his head, knew that going back to Luffy's town will only be useless.

Whitebeard gave his son a small smile. "Well, suit yourself. Oh, by the way, a woman named Dadan wanted me to give you this." He said after pulling something from his pocket.

"Oyaji, we're ready to sail." One of the navigators informed the old man.

Whitebeard nodded and stood up, "My children, prepare to set sail!" He bellowed.

"Aye, captain!" Most of the pirates exclaimed back and they went back to assigned post. The anchor was lifted and the Moby Dick begin to move again.

Ace blinked his eyes in confusion as he stared at the familiar seashell his father placed on his hands. "Isn't this a tone dial?" he asked himself as he twist and turn the said contraption. Even if he's curious where Luffy get a hold of this kind of special device, he's more curious about what this tone dial contains.

The young pirate pressed the button and he was shock to hear Luffy's voice came out from the contraption.

" _Hi Ace, I'm sorry I couldn't even say good bye to you. It was kind of hard to do it, and I don't think I can even say it, especially to someone like you, who I wanted to spend my whole life with._ ("What...?" Ace gasped, his cheeks colored in dark red.) _Ace, thank you for everything, you've changed me forever and I will never forget you. I can only hope that I will have the courage to say my parting words for you."_

"Parting words...?" Ace was disappointed when Luffy's voice cut off, he was hoping to hear more of her voice. He painfully placed the tone dial, the only thing that connects him to Luffy, close to his heart. ' _Luffy...'_ he was somehow conflicted what to feel. Glad that he's finally able to hear his voice, even if it was only through this contraption. Or to feel sad that she didn't find the courage to see him off.

One pirate was situated at the crow's nest, armed with a telescope, he was scanning the surroundings of Moby Dick when he caught a figure standing at the pier— she's too close at the edge for comfort— waving frantically at them.

"Uhm, Commander Ace!" He called out, keeping the monocular focused on Luffy. She was waving with her hands above her head and was shouting something. "Isn't that Luffy?"

Ace scrambled towards the railing, and there she is, waving at them. Dadan, Makino, Mayor Woodslap and some of the villagers were all standing behind her, with the orange haired lady eyeing Luffy closely. Her body was positioned where she can react in haste if Luffy, god-forbid, fall into the water.

"What the— oi, that's dangerous, Luffy!" He screamed, concerned that Luffy might fall down from the port and fell into the sea, but for the first time in awhile, Ace is finally smiling, a very wide one at that.

Luffy was frantically waving to the direction where they told her the Moby Dick would be. At first, she decided to hide from Ace, for the reason that she couldn't say good bye to him. It'll break her heart to see him go, no pun intended. While it was true that her grandfather arrived the other day, Luffy decided to stay in Dadan's place until the Whitebeard Pirates leave the island. Her grandfather stayed with her.

Although, Garp was tempted to confront the Whitebeard pirates, most especially the person Luffy was talking so highly of, and dare he say, enamoured with, (" _My innocent little Luffy is blushing! Blushing, Dadan! That damn pirate dare to seduce my little Luffy! Unforgivable!"_ ) the old Vice Admiral decided to choose the opposite. He wanted to spend the little time he have with his granddaughter until they leave to the specialised hospital in Goa Kingdom, where Luffy will take her long-awaited eye surgery. Also, Luffy was threatening to not talk to him if he dare lay a hand on Ace or to Whitebeard Pirates, so he grumbled a reply that he will not touch the damn pirate. For now, at least.

But in the end, she didn't want to leave things hanging like this with Ace. She wanted to say her feelings to him. She loves him, even if they are miles apart, even if it'll be difficult to stay in love with a person and not see him everyday, even if they are not together, even if she will feel incomplete without him, Luffy was sure that her feelings for Ace will conquer everything.

They will see each other again, after all.

Someday, for sure.

"ACE! EVERYONE! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!" She screamed, tears streaming down her pinkish cheeks. "I'M GOING TO MISS YOU!"

"Luffy..." Ace's heart clenched as the distance between him and the lady he loves so much gets wider by the second. He wanted to lock her in his arms, to reassure her that they will see each other again. That he loves her so, so much. All Ace can do was to laugh weakly, allowing the tears to roll down his cheeks. "Haha... HAHAHA! GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR OPERATION!"

' _Wait for me, Luffy, I'll be back. I swear to my pirate's honor!'_ He swore in his heart, hoping for Luffy to feel it since they are now connected through their heart. Distance gives them reason to love each other more, after all.

When Thatch was informed by one of his division subordinates that they are finally leaving Fuschia Town and that some of the villagers appeared to see them off, including Makino-san, he automatically jumped from the bed ignoring the throbbing pain in his head. He uttered a quick apology to Izou and to the nurses before he rushed towards the upper deck. "Luffy! That's dangerous! Please, be careful!" He called out, and then his eyes met Makino-san's orbs. His chest thud painfully, but he didn't want for the bartender to feel sorry for him or to feel that she's compelled to blame herself for rejecting him, Thatch gave her his usual toothy grin. "Makino-san! Farewell! I'll see you again! And I'll beat the shit out of Shanks if he even lay his eyes on different lady, don't worry!"

Thatch could hear the soft chuckle from Makino, despite their distance. The bartender, with one hand wiping the tears on her eyes, nodded and waved at him. "See you, again, Thatch! Have a safe trip!" She exclaimed back.

"Luffy-chan! We're going to pray for the success of your operation!"

"We're going to miss you, Lu!" Says Bay, who had come to see the blind lady as her little sister thus used Luffy's nickname rather affectionately.

"See you again!"

"ACE!" Ace froze when Luffy called out for him, however, they can barely hear her.

"YEAH?!" He called out, leaning over the railing, desperately trying to minimise their imminent distance.

"ARE YOU READY FOR MY PARTING WORDS?"

' _Oh she was talking about this.'_ He thought inwardly, remembering her words from the tone dial. Ace nodded. "OF COUSE! LET ME HEAR IT!"

"I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, ACE! I'LL SEE YOU AGAIN SOON!"

"EHH?!" The pirates and villagers who heard Luffy nonchalant confession gasped, some blushed, some threw their jaw downward and some giggled giddily.

"WHA—!" Ace, on the other hand, gasped and blushed furiously as soon as Luffy's words sunk in his mind. His body froze in shock, eyes connected to Luffy's unseeing and yet twinkling eyes.

Luffy was smiling ear to ear, and as if sensing Ace's trapped on her, the blind lady mouthed the words 'I love you' once again, making Ace blushed thousand folds. He said this before, and he will say it again, he really need to stop underestimating the young lady, for she has caught off him guard many, many times already.

"Oy, Luffy broke Ace!" Somebody rapidly shook Ace's frozen body.

"He's not breathing! We need a doctor here!" Another one screamed in animated panic.

"He was so shock that he turned into a stone." One said this with nonchalance expression, as if he's not worried about Ace's wellbeing, only amused by his reaction to Luffy's sudden confession.

"So, I get it that Luffy is Ace's girlfriend now?" Rakuyu asked, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

"What?!" Ace snapped from his reverie, heart sinking when he can barely see Luffy and the others anymore. God, he wasted his little time somersaulting in happiness in la-la land that he missed his chance to answer back to Luffy's confession! Shit!

"Oh, he's back." Izou muttered in exasperation. Slapping Ace on his head with his wooden fan.

"Welcome back, space cadet." Marco teased, amused to see the fumbling and flustered second division commander.

"Uhm... Luffy's my... g-g-girlfriend?" How come thinking that Luffy is his... l-l-lover now, made his stomach clenched in tickling way? Not that he didn't like that idea, though, maybe he'll get use it to call Luffy as his... g-g-girlfriend. Damn it, stomach, stop somersaulting like that!

Thatch, finally back to his old self, wrapped his arm around Ace's neck. "Your purity is so refreshing sometimes, Ace." He joked, ruffling the young commander's hair.

"S-s-shut up...!" The fire user grunted in embarrassment, pushing the head chef away from him, but it proved to be difficult to push his brother away.

"Awww, our baby boy is no longer a baby!" Bay jeered, pinching Ace's cheeks affectionately.

"Cheers!" The rest of the pirates cheered.

"Shut up! I didn't get to say anything to her, though. What if she thinks I don't like her back? Does that mean she thinks it's one sided?" Soon, realisation dawn him when he neither accept nor reject (as if he would reject her though) Luffy's confession. Colours drained from his handsome and freckled face. "What if she found another man to l-like? Holy crap! Turn the ship back!" Ace stumbled his way towards the navigation department, but he was stopped by his siblings. Two grabbed him on his waist, each of his arms were clutched by two members of second division and the rest tried to block his way.

"Ace, no!"

 **THE END**

 _Aaaaand that's the ending. I wanted it to end like this. I don't know why._

 _Don't worry, I'm in process of writing an epilogue. There will be no Shanks or Garp, but there will be Sabo and Dragon :) For now though, this is a 'Complete' story._

 _See you in the epilogue, people!_

 _And thanks for supporting my story (stories, if you have read my two other stories) your reviews, criticism and encouragement are greatly appreciated by yours truly._

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


	14. Epilogo

**Of Blindness and Friendship**

 **Summary:** AU: This is a story about the unlikely friendship between a blind girl and pirate. Could there be more than just friendship in the end? Slight Fem!LuffyxAce

 **Genre:** Alternative Universe, Angst, Drama, Family, Slice of life, Fluff

 **Disclaimers:** One Piece © by Oda Eiichiro

 **Epilogo**

Eighteen months later.

Luffy had her operation one month after that— working up for her operation took her that long— and despite the low percentage of the success, she overcame all the odds and was able to see again. It took her six months to fully recover— meaning it took her six months to get rid of her grandfather and Dadan fretting about her condition— before she went back to her old self again. Cheerful, active and a headache for her grandfather.

Meanwhile, with the help of Makino, during her recovery she and Ace wrote to each other twice a month. Few times, they used the tone dial if they really missed each other too much. One day, to her delight, Ace gave her his red beads necklace— a gift for himself on his debut as a pirate— and a piece of paper that he said will lead to him someday or whatever that means, she asked Makino to stitch the paper into her straw hat for safekeeping anyways.

During the times she's well enough to read and write letters for Ace herself, she indulged herself with the full details of Ace's adventure in Grand Line, which sparked her interest to be a pirate again. She wanted to see the world now she's able to see again.

Maybe someday.

 **OnePieCe**

Ace is worried.

Luffy's letter is late for three weeks, and even if he wanted to hopped into one of their mini boats and go back to Fuchsia Village to check up on her, he couldn't. Or more like, his father and siblings wouldn't let him go, not after his encounter with Garp the Fist, of all people, in one of Marine protected island they so unfortunately found for restocking their items months ago.

When Garp finally recognised Ace, he was quick to infused his Haki in to his fist and threw it to Ace. If it wasn't because of Ace's keen observation haki, he would have been hit by the Vice Admiral's famous 'fist of love' and well, he would most probably end up much with more than a concussion from it.

Suffice to say, Ace shuddered while remembering their horrific encounter, the second division commander was force to hide inside the depth Moby Dick to avoid the overprotective grandfather of his girlfriend for the duration of their stay on that island.

"Heh." Ace giggled, yes, he giggled every time the word 'girlfriend' followed next to Luffy's name.

Anyways, he is now locked in Moby Dick (even until now, he could still hear Garp's threat that he will follow Ace, even at the end of the world), fortunately, there are no news about Goa Kingdom and they do say 'no news is good news', so his family dismissed his plea to return to Fuschia village.

The last time Luffy wrote to him, she did mention that she'll not be writing to him for few days or weeks for some reason that she will reveal to him next time. But since he's an awesome boyfriend, he's worried ('fretting' is what Thatch joked about it) about the well-being of his girlfriend.

Right now, he's lying on his bed in his private quarters. He just finished his long overdue paperworks and his head his throbbing in pain. Ace just wanted to sleep, but Luffy and her whereabouts is plaguing his mind preventing him from doing so.

Ace was about to roll on the other side when his door suddenly slammed open. He jerked his body upright and his wide eyes stumbled at the panting Sabo standing on his doorway.

"PORTGAS D. ACE, YOU BETTER START EXPLAINING NOW OR SO HELP ME GOD!" Sabo, his sworn brother and best friend since childhood, glowered at him. The blonde young man made his way to him, stomping all the way.

"The fuck...?" Ace, understandably confuse by the suddenness, muttered in irritation.

Sabo slammed his hands over Ace's shoulders, the latter winced in pain in return, and shook him harshly. "I need to hear your explanation!" His brother, once again, bellowed that only escalate Ace's irritation.

"Explanation for what?" Ace asked dizzily, shrugging Sabo's hands off him.

"Please, excuse me." A calm voice said.

Sabo and Ace turned their eyes to the door. A man in his forties wearing a dirty robe over his obvious buffed body entered Ace's room, uninvited.

Sabo gasped and hurriedly went towards the newcomer. "Dragon-san, please, I said I'll talk to him first. This might be a little misunderstanding."

Ace anchored his eyebrow. "What the hell is happening, 'Bo? And who's this old man?" He asked, feeling that he deserved to be angry when his brother and this mysterious old man invaded his sanctuary. Not that Sabo is not allowed inside— he did visited him couple of times before—, but right now he's sooo tired and his mind is too busy thinking about his girlfriend that he just wanted to be left alone, thank you very much!

Sabo scandalously glared at Ace, clearly offended by his choice of words. "Old man?! Don't you—,"

The said 'old man' patted Sabo on his shoulder, which automatically calm the blonde young man down with his misplaced hysteria, and said, "Please calm down, Sabo. I'm only here to personally meet the person my daughter's so enamoured with." He gave Ace a calculating gaze, as if gaging Ace's worth or something.

Ace, on the contrary, blinked his eyes. "Uh, daughter?" He asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.

The older man cough, straightening his back. "Hello, Portgas D. Ace, my name is Monkey D. Dragon, leader of the revolutionary army. _And_ the father of Luffy." He said rather casually.

Sabo kept his silence, but he has his lips pursed into a thin line and his brows tangled together.

Dragon's words processed in Ace's mind rather slowly, but when it finally dawn into him, Ace's eyes bulged from his socket and his jaw slacked downwards. "Monkey... daughter...? _FATHER?!_ Oh shit!" He leaped from his bed, folded his legs under him and straightened his back formally. Silently thanking Izou and his his lessons about proper manners that he drilled on him years ago. "Uhm, hi! I'm Ace, Portgas D. Ace, nice to meet you, Dad! I-I mean... N-nice to meet you Luffy's dad!" He squeaked, bowing so low that the tip of his nose almost touched the surface of his bed.

Sabo, clearly peeved at Ace's awkward politeness, sighed in exasperation, slapping a hand against his forehead. On the other hand, Dragon was only looking at Ace with mere curiosity.

"So, it's true?" Sabo inquired impatiently to his brother.

"What is?" Ace asked in return, while in the awkward half-bent position.

"That you're in a relationship with Lu? Dragon-san's daughter?"

Ace bolted up. He frowned his eyebrows, not likely in the slightest that his brother addressed Luffy using her nickname. "You know her?" He doesn't want to sound like a jealous and possessive boyfriend, but screw that, he's _jealous_ and he's the _boyfriend_. Ace thinks that he deserves to feel that way.

The obvious irritation emitting from his brother amused Sabo, so he lightly chuckled and shook his head. "I only met her twice in my life of knowing Dragon and working in revolutionary army. And she only knew me as Sabo, your brother."

He remembered his first encounter of Luffy. When Dragon was informed by Garp that Luffy lost her eyesights, he immediately abandoned the mission then and went to Goa Kingdom. Sabo wasn't supposed to be with Dragon, he was ordered to return to their HQ East Blue branch but he insisted to go along with the man he considered as his father figure, it was the first time he has seen Dragon so worried, restless even. He's always calm and calculating. They arrived at the former residence of Monkey family, a bungalow type house just behind Party's bar, and out of respect for Dragon, Sabo stayed outside while he quickly went towards his daughter's side.

He didn't mean to eavesdropped, but Dragon and Garp weren't exactly conscious with the volume of their shouting. They both want to take custody of the Luffy— who was fifteen back then— but in the end Garp won the argument, seeing that Luffy is not safe with Dragon.

Sabo took a peek from the nearest window when he heard a soft sobbing, he saw Luffy, crying her heart out as the a large woman with orange hair glared at Garp and Dragon and a young lady wearing a bandana comforting Luffy. Sabo was quite mesmerised with Luffy's cute face.

After days of staying with her daughter, Dragon reluctantly left Luffy's side, but he couldn't risk her safety as well.

The second time he met her was just months ago. She was able to see her again, Sabo was caught off guard seeing her all smiles and sparkling with happiness. But remembering their... _erhm..._ conversation back then, Sabo couldn't helped but to pout.

" _Hi!" Luffy greeted, suddenly appearing out of nowhere._

" _H-hello..." he was surprised and confused all at the same time, surprise that she can finally see again, and confuse that she's here greeting him while leisurely waltzing across the hallway of the secret HQ of Revolutionary army in East Blue branch._

 _She was wearing ripped shorts, red tee shirt and sneakers. Her hair was pulled into a loose messy bun, but what was odd about her outfit was the straw hat that was bouncing behind her._

" _Have you seen my father?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, which Sabo found a cute gesture._

" _Erm, he's in his office, I think, do you want me to—,"_

 _Luffy shook her head. "No, thanks! I can manage. See ya!" She said, and then she nonchalantly walk away towards Dragon's office._

" _Sabo has a crush on Dragon-san's daughter." Koala, who appeared out of nowhere, said casually to Hack, not bothering to lower her voice or even not afraid if Sabo can hear her or not._

 _Hack nodded sagely._

" _Well, if you want, you can be her husband." Dragon added, as soon as he heard that his daughter arrived at their HQ, he was quick to leave overseeing of the new recruits to one of his subordinates._

 _Sabo's face blushed into deep red. "D-Dragon-san! I can't— I mean— Iwouldn'tm-mindtobeherhusbandbut— but—"_

" _He's stuttering." Hack jived, tapping a finger on his chin._

 _Koala nodded. "He's shy. Wow, can't believe I'll see the day where our dear Chief of Staff will be this fluster."_

" _S-SHUT UP!_ " _Sabo exclaimed in embarrassment._

" _I can't marry you." The voice behind Sabo said._

 _The Chief of Staff twitched and rigidly turned around. "L-Luffy..." his heart clenched a little when his mind registered what she just said._

 _Luffy turned to face Dragon, her solemn black orbs met Dragon's. "I want you to know that I'm with Ace, dad. I love him, and he loves me back." She said, eyes glimmering with determination and seriousness._

 _Sabi blinked his eyes, recognising the name Luffy mentioned. "A-Ace... As in...?"_

 _Luffy, then, beamed and turned to Sabo. "Yep! Portgas D. Ace, second division commander of Whitebeard Pirates. Oh, and you're his brother, right? I'm Luffy, but you can call me Lu or something. Hehe, nice to meet you, Onii-chan!" She chirped, lifting a hand to Ace for a handshake._

 _Sabi blink once._

 _Twice._

 _Before he gawked animatedly at Luffy. "WAIT, WHAT?!"_

To say that he was shock about the revelation was an understatement of the century.

' _She even called me 'Onii-chan'...' S_ abo sighed inwardly.

Dragon did not voice his disagreement or acceptance with Luffy's newly found relationship with Ace, but he was eerily quiet that time and after that. Since then, Dragon kept asking about Ace's background but Sabo loved his knucklehead of a brother— even if Ace _is_ a knucklehead sometimes— so he's not just going to reveal his brother's parentage to Dragon even if he is his mentor, father figure and his boss rolled into one.

Sabo shook his head. He forced himself from his train of thoughts before he get lost with it. "But that doesn't answer my question! Are you really in a relationship with Luffy?"

"It's... kind of complicated..?" Ace answered with unsure expression.

Sabi grunted, "Ace! I'm serious! Are you or are you not dating Luffy?"

"It's not official but the feelings are mutual!" Which is the truth, despite admitting their feelings through letters and tone dial, it would definitely feel different and sincere if they confessed their feelings personal. Luffy confessing to him is not counted.

"So, you're really dating my daughter then." Dragon asked, Sabo was starting to sweat seeing the seriousness in Dragon's face. He's always serious, but today he's alarmingly intimidating as well. Like he's trying to scare Ace but also doing it in a very subtle way.

"Yes, of course." Ace nodded, throwing all the apprehension and the need to make a great first impression to his girlfriend's father out of the window. If he's trying to intimidate him and make him break up with Luffy, well he's into a severe disappointment.

Sabo lifted an eyebrow, with his brother's past relationship escapade it was all about benefits and fun. With Luffy, however, Sabo doesn't want to admit it but she made a serious man out of Ace.

"You know I'm planning of engaging Sabo with Luffy?" Dragon casually said.

On the contrary, Sabo snapped his head to him.

"What?!" Ace hissed, the Chief of Staff doesn't like how the flames started licking on Ace's shoulders while glaring sharply at him.

"Dragon-san! You know I would never agree to that! Hey— don't you dare use your devils fruit on— dammit Ace!" He exclaimed in panic as he kept dodging Ace's flaming fists.

Ace lifted a palm, and a ball of fire suddenly appeared hovering from it. "I don't care if you're my brother, I will not hand over Luffy to you that easy! Or ever!"

"I don't like Luffy!" Which is a half lie, he's got a crush at Luffy, but only a little! But still, he wouldn't dare steal Luffy from him! ' _Come on, man, where's your faith to your sworn brother?!'_ Sabo nearly ducked out of Ace's flaming fist again. "I mean, yeah she's cute and all but I only see her as a little sister! So, don't you dare throw that fire balls of yours at me!" He pulled out his weapon of choice, a water pipe, which he embedded with his haki to defend himself.

"Enough." Dragon appeared between brothers, not even slightly alarmed that he stood between two haki users. "I was the one who wants Luffy to marry Sabo someday. I know the kid and trust him enough that he will treat my daughter right and well." He said, defending his second-in-command.

Ace clenched his jaw, he didn't like how Luffy's father making it out like he doesn't deserve her. Well, to hell with his opinion. "I love your daughter and I will not do anything to hurt her. However, I'm not going to just stand idly on the side line if you're going to force her to marry Sabo, or anyone else for that matter." He hissed, completely forgetting that he's talking to Luffy's father, or the person who leads the revolutionary army— heck, Dragon is the most wanted criminal in the world!

"Ace..." Sabo murmured, bedazzled by Ace's newly found determination about showing his sincerity for Luffy.

Dragon only blinked, but softly chuckle in return. "Heh. You've got guts kid. Think I know the reason how you survived my father's wrath." He joked, shaking his head after. "And I'm not going to hurt the person who was responsible for changing my daughter's mind in taking the operation. In fact, I should be thanking you. So thanks, kid." The older man smiled, a mellowed one.

"Uhm, you're welcome?" Ace was caught off guard with the sudden change of Dragon's expression.

"And here, take this." He pulled out a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to Ace.

"What is this?" He accepted the paper nonetheless.

"This is the real reason why I came to see you today. It came out this morning, and I'm sure you'll find that very interesting." He said, acting so mysterious all of a sudden, which cause a confusion to the second division commander.

"Sigh..." Sabo exhaled, looking so tired.

"?" Ace furrowed his eyebrows.

"Let's go outside, Sabo. I think we disturbed Whitebeard and his crew enough for today." He said, and then he started making his way towards the door.

"O-okay." Sabo answered, he followed Dragon outside not after giving his brother a quick nod.

Ace watched the two leave his quarter, before he unfolded the paper, he doesn't know why but he's feeling nervous about what the paper would reveal to him.

And he was not disappointed. In fact, he was beyond astounded when his eyes travelled to the familiar round and pretty face— the face he so longed to see and touch— the paper revealed to him.

She was winking at the camera, smiling without the care in the world, the smile that was not suited for a wanted poster.

The smile he loves _so_ much.

"WHAT THE _HELL_?!"

 **Wanted Dead or Alive: Straw Hat Luffy of Straw Hat Pirate!**

" _See you at the top, Ace ^_~v!"_

 **The End**

 _Ohhh~~~ the current timeline is almost two years after Whitebeard Pirates left the Goa Kingdom. It was enough for Luffy to heal her eyes while doing some training. Probably. She's Luffy, guys, are your expecting anything less than that? lol!_

 _In between her recovery, she visited her father in their East Blue branch HQ, where she met Sabo for the second time for him and first time for her. But she recognised him from Ace's letters. This also happened before Teach's betrayal, in my heart though, Thatch will forever live. Heh._

 _I'm writing another story, but the progress is too slow, I keep hitting the dead end so I guess I'm going to post it much, much later. But this is the synopsis or the draft plot._

" **A young woman forms a bond with a young man while on a road trip."**

 _See you, guys, again! ;)_

 _Love lots,_

 _Gummy :)_


End file.
